The consequence of rehabilitation

With all the talk in the media about the Jon Venables case,it seems apt that the National Audit office are set to release a report saying that our failure to rehabilitate tens of thousands of serial criminals is costing the country up to £10 billion a year.

The report will say that prisoners on short-term sentences are being left idle in their cells for much of the day,and that activities for prisoners are "inadequate" and prison bosses know little about how well the schemes they do run work.

The report goes onto say that 60 per cent of short-sentenced prisoners commit another crime within a year of getting out with around 60,000 prisoners being jailed for less than twelve months each year.