Quite an interesting post...!  I'm not sure that's the obvious conclusion one should draw from this.  True, something needs to be done about the prison population, and it isn't necessarily about building more prisons. 

The answer has to be more towards rehabilitation and restorative justice in my view, building on tackling the causes of crime (family breakdown, poverty, drugs, gang violence etc).  I don't think that simply 'increasing welfare spending' per se is the answer.

Prison should be for the worst offenders: murderers, child abusers, rapists, terrorists, violent offenders etc.

I think we should get companies to start entrepeneurship schemes for prisoners. Prisoners are locked up in cells for 23 hours a day, doing nothing. Many prisons have seen successful schemes whereby companies like Toyota, have funded mechanical workshops, and when prisoners are released, are then employed by them. That makes you safer.

And if we know anything from our schools, and hospitals, it is that if a school has a poor physical (literally speaking) structure, then it won't do well. In schools that are falling apart, so will the results of the children. If prisons are overcrowded, prisoners are more likely to commit suicide and be raped anyway, but if we slah prison numbers, we can dramatically increase spending on the rehabilitation, and education of a prisoner. Schemes such as making sure staff explain the institution routine clearly, which slashes prison suicides on the first night, can only be done by dramatically increasing the funding for programmes and staff.

It isn't that £100,000 is too much to spend on a prisoner, it's that our overcorwed prisoners stop it being spent effectively. The government has a track record of tackling this, so why not on prisons? They knew in 1997 that massive NHS waiting lists, and high class sizes stop money being spent effectively. They still have more work to do on the second problem.

Look at Feltham, it has been turned around since the scandals of racist murders, and suicides. Ofsted gives its education centres high excellence ratings. But when 80% of kids walk out to no fixed abode, this is an inequality we must tackle. If 80% are still drug addicted, illiterate, unskilled, and homeless, this leaves everyone more at risk of crime. When iliteracy rates in prisons are 50%, it suggests a defenite correlation between the failings of our education system, and crime.

I can't remember who said it, but a senior prison inspector once said, "Two-thirds of prisoners should be let out, and the other third should never be let out." Why are 40% of female prisoners in prison for shoplifting? And another 30% for drug offences? There is a direct correlation between the fact that a third of kids in prisons have come out of care homes. I think we should get Camilla Batmanjilidh to roll out a series of Kid's Company centres across Britain, with special links with the Youth Justice Board to help rehabilitate young offenders. Her centre has a 90% success rate.

The shocking statistics don't end. A quarter of female prisoners have been in care homes, half had been beaten by their partners, 40% had dropped out of school before the age of 16. I am an anti-theist, but I believe it is in one of the holy scriptures where the phrase 'violence begats violence' appears (correct me if I'm wrong), and if so is one of the wisest phrases to come out of the holy books.

If anyone thinks that rehabilitation is a whole lot of money for little results, and just uncomfortable nimbies who don't want to punish 'evil criminals', then consider statistics like these. An initiative called the Milton Keynes Retail Theft Initiative, getting shoplifters to meet shop owners who are the victims of theft, teaching them skills to resist peer pressure etc. was launched in 1995. It had a 3% reoffending rate. That's not a misprint. Just 3%.

I think those who commit non-violent offences should peform community sentences, which are less expensive, and far more effective.

Liverpool has had a fascinating scheme. When prisoners are released, many end up in NFA, which is a revolving door back to prison, as it makes it so much harder to get a job etc. If Brown was serious about his 'work is the best welfare' work ethic, he would nationally roll out this scheme: prisoners re-build derelict, and abandoned housing stock, and then move into the houses themselves. Consequently, prison suicides crashed, and reoffending rates drop significantly.

I think we should let some prisoners vote. Quickly, for many marginal MP's, it would be a big issue. Most prisoners complain that they are not close enough, for their WAGS and children to visit. The best way to stop many men reoffending is to keep a dame nearby. Prisoners aren't complaining about pool tables, but the lack of drug rehabs, job training, and adequate housing once released.

There are around 6,000 prisoners on remand-who haven't been charged for any crime. 12,000 prisoners annually are found not guilty of any crime, after being on remand. The government should reverse the abolition of the independent prisons inspectorate.

There are 8,000 prisoners who inspectors say need to be immedietly sectioned. There are 10,000 in for either selling soft drugs, or taking/possessing them. 2,000 people are in prison for being too poor to pay their fines, and their are 1,000 sex workers in prison. WHY ARE THEY THERE???

The legalisation of drugs would see massive saving for our criminal justice system. Rhys Jones would still be alive if gangs in Toxteth hadn't been warring over heroin supplies. Furthermore, if you were to roll out heroin prescription, burglaries could be slashed by around a half: in Switzerland, it saw burglaries crash by 70%. Scotland Yard says 95% of guns come from the drugs trade. Milton Friedman estimated that 10,000 gun deaths in the US are a result of drugs prohibition. When guns are prohibited, the price, like any prohibited item soars. Handguns can be bought for £200, machine guns for £4000. Friedman estimated that say, heroin, is at a 3,000% inflated price. This makes access of gangs to the gun trade 3,000% more likely, and a heroin addict is 3,000% more likely to rob your house, or mug an old lady.

Tough on crime, and tough on the causes of crime can be congruent. ASBO's should be combined with massive funding for the child to help them become skilled or properly educated.

Overall, the way to tackle crime, is 'Education, Education, Education'.