Some thoughts on the jailing of Amanda Hutton

Amanda Hutton has been jailed for 15 years for the manslaughter of her four year old son by starving him to death. Following his death she failed to notify the authorities and continued to claim child allowance as his little body decomposed.
It is clear that this woman, an alcoholic who drank bottles of vodka while feeding her son scraps, has to pay for her negligence. But how? Is prison the best way of punishing her? Is she a danger to the public? I doubt it!
She will probably serve seven and a half years, if she survives that long in a hostile prison environment, at, shall we say £350 a day, costing tax payers just under a million pounds.
Why not stick her in the stocks each weekend for a year, the penalty to include a permit for the throwing of soft fruit, and allow the public to vent their feelings towards her. My guess is she'd quickly understand the error of her ways and the Nation's pent up frustration and outrage at her behaviour will be assuaged at little or no cost to the public purse.

That Amanda Hutton was obviously guilty of this crime leads me to ask why she was allowed to plead 'Not Guilty' resulting in a long trial at great public expense? Would it have anything to do with generating huge and unnecessary fees for the legal teams?

I can hear apologists for the legal system saying that we measure our civilization by how we treat our prisoners and others will say that the poor woman needs help to overcome her addiction and then rehabilitation to make her a valued member of society. Who pays for this?
But wait! Hush; while I strain to hear the whisper of voices representing the one person whose voice will not be heard; the little boy who wasted away, unloved who doubtless cried himself to sleep at night, frightened and in pain. I'm sick to the back teeth of the liberal minded do-gooders, the judges and lawyers who only think of the perpetrators because, let's be honest, they know they cannot be judged by the dead. Well I can and they are failing the innocent and the weak. Who will stand up to this bewigged bunch and make sure that the evildoers get what they deserve at minimum cost to the taxpayers?