Georgia L Gilholy is a freelance journalist.
Yesterday marked one year since the 2023 Nottingham Attacks, in which Valdo Calocane, who emigrated to the UK with his family as a teenager, fatally stabbed three people and injured three others by driving a van into them.
This tragic case typifies the preventable suffering inflicted on the British public due to our failed political system. Like many mass killers and terrorists, Calocane was already known to police for violent offences. The police also failed to take toxicology tests from Calocane in the aftermath of his brutal rampage, despite evidence that he visited a drug-dealing gang member beforehand.
We may never know Calocane’s connections to drugs. But the connection between drug abuse and crime is undeniable. With 300,000 heroin and crack cocaine addicts responsible for nearly half of all burglaries, robberies, and other crimes such as shoplifting, it’s clear that drug addiction drives much of the criminal activity plaguing our communities.
The UK’s escalating drug use and death rates – with Scotland having the worst drug death rate in Europe – are not a result of a so-called war on drugs, contrary to what many pundits claim. Britain has not properly enforced its drug possession laws since the early 1970s, and drug use has soared exponentially since.
This must change. We need strong deterrents against becoming addicted to these life-ruining substances in the first place. The law should not be viewed merely as a tool to incarcerate large numbers of people but as a powerful deterrent.
Countries like South Korea and Japan have strict possession laws which they rigorously enforce. In these nations, the populace is well aware that drug use can result in severe legal consequences, thus far fewer people indulge in illegal substances.
Conversely, Portugal’s experiment with full decriminalisation has been a clear failure. Recently, drug deaths in Portugal reached a 12-year high, and drug use has risen.
Even liberal politicians in Portugal admit their decriminalisation project has failed. Across these jurisdictions, touted as freedom-loving paradises, whole streets are cordoned off where troubled addicts are left to their own devices, and entire communities become dens of hopelessness and fear.
Regardless of whether or not substance abuse is involved in a crime, sentencing guidelines in the UK have also shifted from focusing on justice to merely managing prison populations. Victims and public safety seem to be secondary concerns. Last October Lord Edis, England and Wales’ top judge, suggested delaying the sentences of criminals currently on bail due to prison overcrowding.
As a result, rapists and thieves have potentially avoided jail. Additionally, reports from last month indicated that dangerous criminals could be freed more than two months early to alleviate pressure on prisons, which are now 110 per cent over capacity.
Labour has pledged to build more prison spaces to address overcrowding, and has made noises about cracking down on shoplifting, something the Conservatives have openly failed to do. However, the party’s overtures to NIMBYs, and Sir Keir Starmer’s liberal track record at the Criminal Prosecution Service, should make voters sceptical of its promises.
Building more prisons is not about endorsing a punitive approach for its own sake. It’s about ensuring that our criminal justice system can function effectively. Overcrowded prisons are unable to provide the necessary rehabilitation programs, mental health care, and monitoring needed to reform inmates.
More importantly, they fail to serve as an adequate deterrent for would-be offenders.
Labour’s commitment to building more prisons is a step in the right direction. But it must be accompanied by a rigorous enforcement of existing laws. Only then can we hope to prevent further tragedies and protect the British public from unnecessary suffering.