York Dungeon bosses defend controversial ASBO offer (From York Press)
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York Dungeon bosses defend controversial ASBO offer
8:05am Thursday 31st May 2007 in News By Press reporter
Visitors queue to enter York Dungeon, but people with ASBOs gave the attraction the cold shoulder despite an offer of free entry
BOSSES at York Dungeon have defended their controversial decision to let yobs with anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) get in free.
The Clifford Street attraction was widely condemned after it announced it would let criminals in without paying, if they could prove they had an ASBO.
As reported in The Press, not a single person took up the offer - and the move was criticised by York MP Hugh Bayley and police representatives.
Today, Dungeon general manager Helen Douglas defended the offer. She said: "There's been a great deal of media attention surrounding the offer and I think the ASBOs got the message that a visit to the Dungeon would entail a rather hard time.
"We're disappointed that nobody came along as we were hoping that we'd be able to expose the ASBOs to some traditional rough justice at the Dungeon."
In response to the public outcry over the initiative, Ms Douglas said she believed the Dungeon's intentions were "misunder-stood".
"I think a few people got the wrong end of the stick in thinking that we were giving out perks to kids with ASBOs," she said.
"Our aim was to make them see what would have happened to them in times gone by and, should they have visited,they would have been left with no doubt of the severity of their crimes."
But when the offer was unveiled, Jane Mowat, director of Safer York Partnership, said comparing punishments was "completely out of context".
She said: "Talking about modern times, for us, an ASBO is always a last resort, used only when all other methods of prevention have been exhausted. I don't think in all fairness you can compare today's society with the times when hanging was an option. I think it's unfair to take them out of time and context because you are not comparing like for like."
Had anyone with an ASBO taken up the offer, they would have been "publicly humiliated" in a Judgement Of Sinners show, before being handed the "original" punishment for their crimes.
