after all I believe you’re from Thrones, which as far as I know looks at crime and punishment like most of the rest of the RIM does. So I’d like to hear more of that premise,” Captain Tanner Scott said as he sipped his coffee.
“Sir, it’s really pretty simple. On almost all planets as I said, the rationale behind the use of prison time is the three R’s, Sir—retribution, rehabilitation, and recidivism. If we don’t penalize lawbreakers with a penalty, we get no retribution for that crime,” Lieutenant Bates over at the Helm station said.
“And, Sir, without a penalty, what’s to prevent more and more people thinking it’s easier to rob a bank than go out and earn a living. Further,” he said as he looked around the bridge for any nodding heads, “we have the duty to provide rehabilitation—the onus is on the whole penal system at Halberd to provide the means to show convicts how to learn from their mistakes and to make better choices, Sir. And if Halberd doesn’t do that, then recidivism occurs—the relapse of convicts back into their criminal ways.”
Tanner nodded, got up to go over to the coffee station on the bridge to get a refill, and stopped at the edge of the Helm station.
“Any idea what kind of numbers Halberd has with recidivism, Lieutenant?” he said.
“As it happens, yes, Sir. Rates appear to be over sixty-eight percent of convicts of Halberd were re-arrested for new crimes within three years, which as I understand is high. Sir,” he said and nodded to his captain.
As he poured the fresh hot coffee into his thermal plas-mug, Tanner nodded back and then looked at the lieutenant directly.
“Any idea what numbers, say, convicts from Thrones have for recidivism rates, Lieutenant?” he queried.
“Sir, um, no, Sir. No idea. I only know the Halberd numbers as I did some reading on Gallipedia when we were assigned there for the annual duty tour,” he said.
His reminder that the Marwick would be on Halberd for a full year reflected it was still a sore point among the crew. There was a series of mutters from some of the bridge crew at that reminder. The XO smacked his desktop over on the Tactical console, and they all fell silent.
Tanner ignored that and went on, figuring that any notice of their current mission would not be a good thing.
“About the same, give or take a few percentage points, Lieutenant. In fact, as humans and aliens alike have learned, the recidivism rate is always about two-thirds of the total convict population. Except for a few cases of smarter penal systems where they learned that providing free education works as a rehabilitation factor that works way above their weight class, Lieutenant. Few systems use that, but it lowers recidivism down to almost half the normal two-thirds percentage numbers.” Tanner knew his numbers, as he also had done some research as the posting on Halberd meant that he might as well know something about where he’d be living for the next year or so.
From the science desk, Lieutenant Paterson, chief science officer, cleared his throat.
“Ahem ... Sir,” he said. “I wonder if there might be a study or some kind of report on the difference tween human and alien worlds and their respective convicts—what I mean is, is recidivism a constant no matter what the race of the convict?” he asked, his head tilting to one side.
“Not as far as Gallipedia knows—but could be the start of a great new research project, Lieutenant—one perhaps you can look into ...” Tanner said, as he sat back down into the captain’s chair.
“Helm, ETA on Hope is?” he said, thinking he might need to slide down to his quarters to “freshen” up his coffee in a minute or two.
“Dropping out of FTL in about four minutes, Sir, so then it’s less than an hour to Trannis port, Sir.”
“Right, Helm. Ansible, contact the landing port station and let them know we’ll be there in that time frame.
Over at the Ansible station, Lieutenant Greelay
“Sir, it’s really pretty simple. On almost all planets as I said, the rationale behind the use of prison time is the three R’s, Sir—retribution, rehabilitation, and recidivism. If we don’t penalize lawbreakers with a penalty, we get no retribution for that crime,” Lieutenant Bates over at the Helm station said.
“And, Sir, without a penalty, what’s to prevent more and more people thinking it’s easier to rob a bank than go out and earn a living. Further,” he said as he looked around the bridge for any nodding heads, “we have the duty to provide rehabilitation—the onus is on the whole penal system at Halberd to provide the means to show convicts how to learn from their mistakes and to make better choices, Sir. And if Halberd doesn’t do that, then recidivism occurs—the relapse of convicts back into their criminal ways.”
Tanner nodded, got up to go over to the coffee station on the bridge to get a refill, and stopped at the edge of the Helm station.
“Any idea what kind of numbers Halberd has with recidivism, Lieutenant?” he said.
“As it happens, yes, Sir. Rates appear to be over sixty-eight percent of convicts of Halberd were re-arrested for new crimes within three years, which as I understand is high. Sir,” he said and nodded to his captain.
As he poured the fresh hot coffee into his thermal plas-mug, Tanner nodded back and then looked at the lieutenant directly.
“Any idea what numbers, say, convicts from Thrones have for recidivism rates, Lieutenant?” he queried.
“Sir, um, no, Sir. No idea. I only know the Halberd numbers as I did some reading on Gallipedia when we were assigned there for the annual duty tour,” he said.
His reminder that the Marwick would be on Halberd for a full year reflected it was still a sore point among the crew. There was a series of mutters from some of the bridge crew at that reminder. The XO smacked his desktop over on the Tactical console, and they all fell silent.
Tanner ignored that and went on, figuring that any notice of their current mission would not be a good thing.
“About the same, give or take a few percentage points, Lieutenant. In fact, as humans and aliens alike have learned, the recidivism rate is always about two-thirds of the total convict population. Except for a few cases of smarter penal systems where they learned that providing free education works as a rehabilitation factor that works way above their weight class, Lieutenant. Few systems use that, but it lowers recidivism down to almost half the normal two-thirds percentage numbers.” Tanner knew his numbers, as he also had done some research as the posting on Halberd meant that he might as well know something about where he’d be living for the next year or so.
From the science desk, Lieutenant Paterson, chief science officer, cleared his throat.
“Ahem ... Sir,” he said. “I wonder if there might be a study or some kind of report on the difference tween human and alien worlds and their respective convicts—what I mean is, is recidivism a constant no matter what the race of the convict?” he asked, his head tilting to one side.
“Not as far as Gallipedia knows—but could be the start of a great new research project, Lieutenant—one perhaps you can look into ...” Tanner said, as he sat back down into the captain’s chair.
“Helm, ETA on Hope is?” he said, thinking he might need to slide down to his quarters to “freshen” up his coffee in a minute or two.
“Dropping out of FTL in about four minutes, Sir, so then it’s less than an hour to Trannis port, Sir.”
“Right, Helm. Ansible, contact the landing port station and let them know we’ll be there in that time frame.
Over at the Ansible station, Lieutenant Greelay
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