Prisons are too soft. I know someone who has some time to serve in the next year who is actually looking forward to going back inside, as she calls it, "centre parcs". She'll have access to more games consoles than she does at home, so theoretically she could steal a console and be sent to a place that gives them to her... She freely admits its no deterrent.
I know what didnt work for her, national service. She lasted 2 weeks. A tour of duty WOULD be a deterrent but there is a problem here. It would be a significant financial investment to brainwash my friend when compared to a nice young gullable school leaver. As the army has said in the past these arent the kind of people they want. Sure it would be a good deterrent, but it would be hugely expensive and leave the army with the wrong kind of soldiers.
The army needs fresh young boys with no experience of anything, they're cheap, easy to mould, and readily available. There is no shortage of quality meat for the armies grinder, especially with more and more governmental influence in our schools with classes such as "terrorism" being taught to inform our children just how much they should fear for their lives and be good little citizens and easy to control.
Prison isnt the problem with knife crime anyway, the guy who did me in the face wasnt scared about jail. He was carrying a knife, well specifically a stanley blade between his fingers, to cut his coke. He wasnt carrying it to hurt anyone, or to defend himself. He was carrying it as a tool for an illicit past time. He was a thug who beat on a group of girls and almost got more than he bargained for until he pulled his knife out. Now you can analyse that incident and form an opinion if you wish, but the reason i'm telling this story [in brief] is because I bet it's different to every other story. My point being that there is likely no single cause or reason for this so called "knife epidemic" - which, lets be honest, 18 dead is hardly an epidemic.