Prisons fail us all - policy has to change | letters
(The Guardian China)

Government ineptitude over many years has resulted in overcrowded jails and reoffending on a huge scaleYour report on the crisis in our prison system (`Are Britain´s prisons facing a meltdown?`, Focus) rightly poses the question: what is prison for? However, we have been asking the same question for the past 25 years and we need some tried and tested answers.Simple rhetoric such as `prison works` have only contributed to the doubling of the prison population. In 1989, the then home secretary, Douglas Hurd, said that `prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse`. Judging by the increase in violence, drug use and suicides, imprisonment continues to make bad people even worse and less likely to be rehabilitated. Continue reading...