The Generalist Party - A Great Britain

General: Crime is becoming a real issue in Great Britain, too many ineffective and money wasting initiatives have been implemented by the Government. It is time we get tough on Crime. The Generalist Party want to get tough on crime and make sure that, while we still concentrate on rehabilitation and deterrents, we punish those found guilty. Too many people think crime pays and that if you don't get away with it, you will get a nice cell, in a hotel style prison with TV's, game consoles and all the free time you want. Enough is enough. If crime gets much worse in this country more people will want to move away or take justice into their own hand's. Why should they have to? The government should be punishing the law breakers and protecting the law abiding citizens.

Youth: Great Britain is seeing a rise in youth related crime, whether that be crime committed by young people or young people being the victim. We need to make sure that the youth feel protected but also realise that if they commit a crime, they will be punished. Heavy punishment will not only deter those who have committed an offence but also those who might commit an offence, therefore becoming a good deterrent. The Generalist Party want to make sure that young people do not get away with their crimes just because they are under 18. We need to punish anyone who commits an offence.

Young Offenders Institutes; We want to make sure that young offender institutes are well established, which will give the youth a feel of what prison is like without actually going to prison. We want them to understand what it is like to be locked away, with no contact with family or friends and no luxuries. That means these institutes will be a less strict version of prison. Whilst given more free time and access to care workers, the youths will understand what prison would be like if they continue to commit crime. These institutes are for anyone under the age of 18 but over the age of 10, who commits a crime. This being said, if the youth commits a serious crime and is over 16, they should be sent to prison. We know that under 10's also commit crime so to combat this, we will send the youth and their parents to an institute for the day to take a class on crime and prisons, giving them a chance to see what will happen if they don't stop committing offences.

Punishment-Prevention; Not all young people are criminals-in-training. That being said we understand that it only takes the wrong influence or the thought that they can get away with it for a youth to commit an offence. Therefore we need to stamp down on crime. The only way of doing this is punishing those who commit a crime and creating an alternative for the youth to get them off the streets. Punishment cannot be be lighter just because of the youths age. If they commit a serious crime they must be tried as an adult. The current problem is knife crime, so we would crack down on the sale of knifes to under 18's, it is important for people to be safe and young people not easily given access to knives and sharp objects. As for prevention, we want to work on creating a Youth Club in every area across Great Britain. This will not only give the youth a place to congregate and socialise but they also move off the street and are under supervision. This would be a non-alcoholic bar type club with music to make sure they feel like adults.

Prison: Prisons in Great Britain have become a rent free, luxury hostel for criminals. What we need is a strict system which is actual punishment. How do we do this? Well we reduce the amount of free time the criminal gets, which would mean more time in their cell. We also want to reduce the quality of the cells, which would mean making sure all luxuries are removed and giving them the bare minimum they require. To cover the rehabilitation side of the justice system, we will make sure that the people in prison have the chance to better themselves. To do that we will offer GCSE's and AS-Levels in the prison library with the chance to complete a full A-Level when they are released. We also want to introduce the inmates to a work ethic. To do this we will create a work programme where the inmates are given time in the day to complete work in return for credits which they can use at the prison shop or for the phone. The work will be labour set up by the prison Warden who will be left to establish a work programme for their prison.

Drugs: Drugs are becoming a serious issue in Great Britain but instead of tackling the problem, the government have reclassified one of the less harmful drugs. The Generalist Party want to concentrate on two issues, we feel that the punishment is adequate at this time so we need to concentrate on rehabilitation and making people aware of the consequences of drug use, therefore giving a measure of prevention.

Rehabilitation; We want to make sure that any drug user that needs help, receives it through the 'NHS'. For this to be done successfully we need to make sure we have rehabilitation centres across the country. They need to include large open space and a relaxed atmosphere with intelligent and trained staff. The Generalist Party will work to make all the rehabilitation centres a centre of cold turkey, which means a user will not be weaned of drugs but they will simply stop and wait till the drug is out of their system. Everything they need will be provided in the centre and communal gardens will be there to give the user something to do and a place to get fresh air, under supervision of course. The cost of these government owned centres will have to come from the treasury but to help fund the centres, whenever a drug dealer is arrested and convicted, all of his possessions will become government property to sell to re-recuperate the cost of these centres. We also want to implement a 2 month work programme at the end of the rehabilitation program in which the guest will work for 2 months while looking for a place to live. This will pay for their room in the centre and also allow them to gain some work experience and experience in the real world without drugs.

Prevention; The Generalist Party want to make sure people understand what effect the use of drugs can have on your life, body and those around you. We want to start an awareness campaign with full advertising showing not only what the medical effects can be but also include information from past users that have overcome their addiction and are willing to share their story. We realise that some people have their own reasons for taking drugs but we also hope that the youth centres and new culture initiatives we want to introduce will also act as a prevention method.

Cannabis; The reclassification of Cannabis was a move by the government to try and avert gaze from their disastrous local election result. It was proven that alcohol can have a worse effect on a persons health than cannabis. Unless they outlaw alcohol the need to make Cannabis a class B drug is mute. We want to make Cannabis a class C drug and leave it that way.

Capital and Corporal Punishment: Our stance on this is very simple. We will hold a referendum on each to decide whether or not to implement the policy across the country. Before the referendum, full details and reports will be made available to everyone. These will detail how the policy would be implemented, the effects it could have and the pros and cons as provided by all groups affected by the policies.

Terrorism: While we understand that terrorism is one of the real issues of today, it is important to note where the threats to this country are coming from. It is here in Great Britain. The papers are always writing about the police finding terror suspects or people with bomb making materials within their home. We want to make sure this country is protected from outside terrorists but also realise the need for protection from those within the country. This comes in the form of religious fanatics that need to be fully investigated to inner city, gang warfare. Terrorism is not just foreign radicals wanting to bomb our country but also the gangs that cause our cities and towns problems on a daily basis, terrorising the people. We want to clamp down on this by working on the current legislation and expanding it to make sure the country is protected. This means increasing the time for detention of terror suspects and improving the ASBO system in place to make sure it actually means something, as more people think it is cool to have an ASBO.

Policing: We want to create one strong police force that is capable of dealing with crime. We want to reduce the number of agencies that are now involved and have just helped to make the police in Great Britain become stagnant. Creating one well trained, multi departmental, well equipped force will help keep more police on the street and reduce crime. We also want to reduce the amount of paperwork and bureaucracy the police have to deal with, more time needs to be spent on the street than in the station.

Agencies; We understand that agencies do work hard but they only water down the police force, take up resources and work to disrupt the quick and easy flow that should be used in this country. Passing information between agencies slows our police down and hinders their chance to catch the criminals. The agencies need to merge into the police force, becoming departments in the force itself. Then we can have trained officers, with all the powers of the police, doing the job required of that department. Anyone who works in these agencies should be offered the chance to join the police, if they accept they should be given adequate training and resources to fulfill their role.

Departments; The police need many departments under the Great British Police Force to be able to deal with the many different situations they are thrust into. We can save a lot of money by having them all part of one force with the powers of the police. These new departments will replace the Agencies in use today. These departments include British Transport Police, UK Border Agency, Child Exploitation and On-line Protection Centre, Serious Fraud Office and Serious Organised Crime Agency to name but a few. These departments would be staffed by trained and well equipped officers that have the power to deal with any situation that may arise, cutting out the need for multi agency communication and expenses. The integral role of these departments will be to work together, with the aim to reduce all levels of crime across Great Britain. This would give us one strong police force with more police officers allowing strong police action in all areas of criminal activity which effects everybody in Great Britain.

Bureaucracy; The current state of bureaucracy in the police force is a joke. We want to cut the amount of paperwork required by individual officers and even introduce an administration team to each department. This means that an officer can give this team their notes and statements and an administrator will write up the paperwork, allowing the officer to get back on the streets or answer a 999 call. This team will be integral to protecting Great Britain and allow our officers to work for the people rather than the government, which will make the force more effective and efficient. We also want to look at hand held computers that will allow the officer to take notes, statements and maybe fill in some of the paperwork while on the job, they can then attach this machine to an Administrators computer, transfer it to their system and allow for the paperwork to be done more quickly and efficiently. These improvements aim to reduce the time an officer spends in the station.

Training and Equipment; We need our police to be well equipped and trained to handle any situation. This means they need to be fit, physically capable and intelligent. These are the basic requirements to become an officer in a strong police force which deals with all kinds of criminal activity. The basic training given needs to include physical elements as well as mental ones. We need to make sure our officers are the best and that the criminals are not stronger than our law enforcement. We need to fund the best equipment. It is often the case that the criminal is better equipped than the officer and this is not right. We need to make sure that officers also receive adequate training in all their equipment with refresher courses at different intervals of their career.

Perspectives: The Generalist Party understands the need for change in the criminal justice system. We therefore take the following stances on certain issues; the legal age for smoking, drinking and the right to vote should be 18 increase police powers and reduce police paperwork to make an effective force that is not taken off the street with paperwork. Make sure the local authorities can effectively run their area without hindrance or need for mass bureaucracy, amend the policy on fixed penalty notice making sure it is a fair and effective system that does not take money of people to pay employees, review Great Britain's handgun laws to make sure they are effective and also implement knife laws to combat the wave of knife crime. These are just a few of the changes the Party want to make and are the start of a Great Britain.