From John Mustoe
Sir: Douglas Hurd is much too nice a person to have anything to do with the prison service. Prisons are full of people who see good people as suckers, and more robust action is going to be needed if we are to get the prison population down.
The ending of slopping out was kind, humane, progressive even, and that may give a warm glow to Lord Hurd, but for the prisoners it made life a little easier, a little more tolerable, more comfortable.
What we need to do to cut the numbers of people who will risk a prison sentence is to make the experience very nasty indeed.
No TV, no radio, the bare minimum of boring food, no heating (throw them another blanket), hard work earns slightly better rations, passing literacy and numeracy exams earns better rations, but the whole thing is a very big misery. Criminals will have a very bad time and people will tend not to do things that are painful. It is called aversion therapy.
John Mustoe Bedford
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