The Mirror (London) reports:

Career criminals are avoiding jail despite committing more than 300 offences.

Eight crooks with the shock crime record escaped prison in 2012, figures released under freedom of information have revealed.

Dozens more hardened offenders avoided time behind bars - despite racking up more than 250 offences.

Critics said the revelations exposed Britain's soft-touch justice system for repeat offenders.

The author of the study, Peter Cuthbertson of the Centre for Crime Prevention, said:

"The most prolific offenders are responsible for a growing percentage of all crime, and locking them up would have a massive impact on the crime rate.

"New Zealand recently fought rising crime by letting criminals know that it is 'three strikes and you're out'. In Britain, we don't even have 300 strikes and you're out."

The majority of the country's most prolific criminals avoided prison despite their previous offences often numbering in the triple figures, according to the study.

We learned that lesson the hard way in the United States, but apparently we have now forgotten it and are rushing headlong to repeat the mistakes of the past.  See, e.g., this post.