BS

Bishop’s Stortford. It’s ever so exciting visiting adjacent counties. Today it was to Hertfordshire to meet friends for a walk and drinks. I was several pints of cider in by this point, but I stuck my head over the pub garden fence and liked what the sky and clouds were doing.

Whenever I see news stories like this, I’m always a) absolutely horrified at the lack of general empathy and understanding in the comments, and b) extremely dubious that custodial sentences act as any sort of deterrent. So many things affect people’s ability to parent attentively and in a strong state of mental health, including poverty-stricken and challenging lives, which millions of people live.

It appears that most people aren’t ready to have conversations about criminal justice reform, but I question the value of criminalising this type of situation through prison, when a mother will already be grieving the loss of her child, no doubt entirely full of remorse that a bad lapse of judgment has cost everyone dearly. I can’t see how sentences like this act as a logical deterrent to parents in similar situations, or is the justice system designed to remove those with chaotic and complex lives from public view? The question is rhetorical...