Boris Johnson, diary fixture and Mayor has a good idea.

Government blocks bid to keep drunks out of jail

viaEvening Standard

The Government is blocking a pioneering plan to cut crime by letting violent drunks take breath tests instead of going to prison, the Mayor's policing spokesman said today.

Either you're in front of Boris, or Westminster is behind him.

Boris Johnson wants anyone convicted of alcohol-related violence to stay out of prison as long as they attend a police station twice a day to take a £1 breathalyser test and prove they are sober.
But the plans for mandatory sobriety tests are being blocked by Ministry of Justice officials, City Hall said.
Kit Malthouse, deputy mayor for policing, said the ministry is refusing to back the plan because it is "not very good at coping with new ideas".
It comes days after the new Scotland Yard commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, said constant testing of convicted drunks is needed to cut crime.
The twice-a-day breath tests plan was inspired by a successful programme in America.
Mr Johnson said such a programme needed to be introduced in the wake of the riots as "the horror and expense of the current booze culture" was evident throughout accident and emergency departments throughout London.

 

Judge Justin and Justice that works

His special pilot drug court boasts a 20% re-ffending rate, 1/3 of the national average. He'd rather hug a druggie and apply some structure, programmes and accountibility to his life than chuck him a jail sentence.

"According to figures supplied by the judge - who is patron of an anti-drug charity and serves on the Council on Misuse of Drugs - an average 60 per cent of his 'clients' did not reoffend while under the court order and 20 per cent became drug-free. The National Drug Treatment Agency's average is just three per cent."

Soft? No. Sensible? Oh yes.

 Hugging druggies