Letter: Broken prison system goes back decades where both main parties must share blame
A letter from David Fleming:
In a question to prime minister Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions, MP Nigel Farage asked about the "extraordinary celebratory scenes outside Britain's prisons" that accompanied the start of Labour's early release scheme.
This is the farce under which 5,500 inmates will be released before completing their sentences as a way to ease overcrowding.
Sir Keir replied: "I'm angry to be put in a position of having to release people who should be in prison because the last government broke the prison system".
What a cop out. This malaise goes back decades where both main parties must share blame.
The public are not interested in the treatment and training of the offender, only interested in locking them up.
I served in the Criminal Justice System between 1972 and 2005 and neither Labour nor the Conservatives used therapy as there was no electoral advantage.
Alas the PM hasn't got the political will to create conditions of imprisonment which would make prisoners stop returning, with a liberal justice department compounded by a lack of resolve in firm law and order.
David Fleming, Norfolk