Reid my lips.

In the Torygraph this morning, John Reid, the Home Secretary, has written an article "Pull together to prevent re-offending" trying to gain support for his plan to inject more from the private sector into the probation service. I do not know whether this will prove to be a good thing or a bad thing. But what I do know, is that John Reid is setting a bad example: "Take the work that is now happening in prisons, where hundreds of different voluntary organisations are helping to rehabilitate and prevent re-offending". I say this because the re-offending rate amongst adults is 63% and amongst young offenders 80%. This is a clear indication that prison doesn't work in the majority of cases. As Jenni Russell argues "This lock-'em-up policy isn't just cruel. It isn't working" (Guardian, Comment is Free). John Reid needs to be concentrating on finding effective alternatives to custody. The public are already paying for both the public and private sector prisons, when I feel that they should only be paying for one or the other, and if he was to introduce the same in the probation service, the public would only be paying twice again and still not getting the desired result.