How many of you who answered this thread have actually worked inside a jail as I have? Prison does not work !!. 75% of ALL prisoners even those on very short sentences NEVER work again , so strong is the bias against 'ex-cons'.
The Tories have spent years putting in ever more and more 'strict' ministers to supervise prisons. Only to see them 'Go Native' and demand reforms as soon as they have been in the job a few months and see the prison system for the catastrophic failure it is.
As many as 40% of prisoners are actually suffering from mental health problems and should be receiving treatment rather than being locked up. But of course it is so much cheaper just to lock them up !.
At least 50% of prisoners are either totally illiterate or so lacking in basic literacy that they are unemployable. Many are both mentally ill and illiterate . I was a tutor in adult literacy inside a prison.I have actually had 'hard' men weep when someone finally understood their problem and tried to help them read and write!
Do not condemn something you know little or nothing about!
Cameron went to visit a prison to see for himself what the problems were , he changed his attitude due to that visit and is now in favour of the reforms the successions of prison ministers have been telling him were desperately needed!