http://digbig.com/4khnd
Juliet Lyon
"Our governments must like keeping us scared. Otherwise they would carry out some obvious reforms to the penal system. People might expect the Prison Reform Trust, a charity working to create an effective, humane prison system, to press for more prison places and more opportunities for rehabilitation in custody rather than for a reduction in prison numbers.
We don't because imprisonment is the most extreme form of punishment in our society. There is no point in building more prison places, at a cost of £100,000 each, when crime is falling overall and jails are full of large numbers of people who do not need to be held there. Prison needs to be reserved for serious and violent offenders. Only as a place of absolute last resort can prison be expected to work to prevent reoffending and protect the next victim of crime."
