TB and the prison population

I watched Tony Blair on PMQs today (24 Jan). There is no doubt he is a good performer and makes David Cameron look quite ordinary, but some of the things he says are scary. You long for the chance to sit down quietly with him and say, 'Yes, Prime Minister, but..'

For example, today he was boasting about the number of new prison places his government has created and the number of people who are in prison for the long term.

If this country is so far along the road to hell in a handcart that we really need all these extra places and prisoners, doesn't that say a lot about our society? If so, what is the government doing to improve things (apart from locking us up)?

Why aren't we pouring resources into tackling the problems of drugs, which are responsible for so much crime? Monty Don's recent TV series with heroin addicts, showed one way in which drug users can be helped but what has become of it? As far as I can tell, nothing. TB prefers to put people behind bars, despite all the evidence that incarceration hinders rather than helping addicts recover.

Saltaire Sam.