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Longer sentences early on in criminal careers is the only way to adequately stop reoffending
Modern prison cells, such as those at HMP Millsike, have increasingly come to resemble the bedrooms of cheaper-chain hotels such as one finds at airports. The cells (and hotel bedrooms) are simple but comfortably furnished, and by no means unpleasant. The much higher standard of accommodation in modern prisons accounts in part for the expense of building them.
Some people might find this aberrant. Are prisons not supposed to be uncomfortable places of punishment rather than of respite or relaxation? However, loss of liberty is the punishment, not harsh conditions which, in closed institutions, so easily result in sadism. A modern civilised state cannot deliberately create bad conditions for its prisoners.
Continue reading the piece here at The Telegraph
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Theodore Dalrymple is a contributing editor of City Journal and a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.