Criminal justice system: Do we need reform in the UK?
For 62% of the public, the courts appear to have insufficient resources to deal with situations like the riots which happened in the summer, which rises to 71% when it comes to belief in policing resources.
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00:00So we need significant investment in policing, but it's not just down to policing this.
00:07We have the criminal justice system which has had significant underinvestment over the last decade,
00:12and that has its impacts. We have less prison spaces.
00:16We have less capability to get people through the court.
00:19So when you're a witness or a victim of crime, by the time it appears at court,
00:2512 months, 18 months down the line, most people have given up hope and don't attend.
00:29So the offender gets off.
00:31So we have also the disconnect between consequence and the deterrent.
00:36And what was good to see in the recent disorder was that relink between consequence and deterrent in crime.
00:45So we had people going out rioting, violent disorder, being charged with that and put before the courts
00:51and receiving the penalty they should get.
00:54And that woke people up saying, oh, that's unreasonable.
00:57But actually, that established the link between there's a consequence of crime
01:02and that should be the deterrent to the general public.
01:05While it's agreed by many experts that more funding and government reform is needed
01:09to help improve the way the criminal justice system works in the UK,
01:13there are also things we can do to help.
01:16Brian believes the community is vital in taking steps towards a better and safer society for all involved.
01:23There is a lot of good work going on in our communities.
01:26There's a lot of people who give up their time.
01:28I give up my spare time for the benefit of my local community and have them for many years.
01:34And that's what we need, people stepping up and assisting.
01:37But we also need people to take ownership of their own issues.
01:40So if their children are misbehaving or their teenagers, get a grip over them.
01:45Make sure they're not. Give them good parenting skills.
01:49And we seem to always blame the last people in the line,
01:53which tends to be the police that come when it's all gone horribly wrong.
01:56But actually we've all got a big part to play in this.