Flog it: For sale dead horse

Flog it: For sale dead horse

You would think it was in everybody's interests to solve the prisons crises. There is nothing new in this headline from the Sunday Telegraph "10,000 set free early from crowded prisons". I don't think it is a big deal to point out that only "300 were locked up again after they were caught reoffending or breaking the terms of their licences". Out of 10,000, 300 failures is something of a success story, especially given that we don't know how many of the 300 actually reoffended and what percentage merely were in breach of their licence conditions. It would appear to me that Jack Straw is not really tackling the problems when he promises 9,500 new prison places. Given that he has just had to release 10,000 prisoners earlier than usual, is 9,500 new prison places really going to make any difference? Not that I am advocating we embark upon a programme of prison expansion. For me, a successful Criminal Justice System policy would be based upon a small prison population not how many can be crammed into our prisons.

I don't think that Nick Herbert has anything new or sensible to offer here, again from the Sunday Telegraph, "We need modern prisons with a purpose". Yes, I agree that we need modern prisons with a purpose. However, other than the headline which sounds good, Nick Herbert in his comment fails to state how this is going to be achieved. The idea of selling off the Victorian prisons and replacing them with newer units is not new. And renaming prisons does just that and nothing more. I wonder if the Tory Party's new slogan "Labour's giving criminals a break" will come back to haunt them. Personally, I think it is about time that the poor old criminal was given a break. For too long now they have been the victims of knee-jerking politicians all seeking to get tougher and tougher upon them than previous Home Secretaries. Bottom line, it does not matter how many times you flog a dead horse it remains a dead horse.

The Sunday Times offers this "Tory call to sell off inner-city prisons", I have included it although I don't think that it offers any more to the debate.