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.

More prisons problems for the government

More problems for the government and particually for Jack Straw as the media are reporting that a terrorist was released just seven months into a three year sentence as a way of easing prison overcrowding

Times Online reports

A ban on terrorists being released early from jail was announced tonight after Times Online revealed that a convicted terrorist was freed 17 days early under plans to ease overcrowding.
Jack Straw, Justice Secretary, was forced to alter Government policy after today’s revelation that Yassin Nassari was freed from a maximum security prison just seven months after a three-and-a-half-year sentence was handed down.
The controversial early release scheme, known as end of custody licence (ECL), was introduced last year to create more space in the UK’s overcrowded prisons. The Government insisted that only “non-violent” offenders would be freed early, but Nassari was convicted of trying to smuggle missile blueprints into the country

Peter Hoskin writes that

Jack Straw’s been vocal about prisons this week, even suggesting that judges might be “too tough” in the sentences they dish out. Until more prisons are built, incidents like this will continue to shoot down all his arguments.