Monday's comment from the papers in...

Today in Times Comment

• Harry Woolf: The former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales hands down a verdict on a system facing meltdown
• Tim Hames: By accepting the authority of the Police, Irish republicanism has decommissioned its own ideology
• William Rees-Mogg: This is a secular Government. Rightly or wrongly, it is more afraid of the gay than the Catholic lobby
• Rosemary Behan: It is possible for a person to be size zero and still be healthy. But this isn't what experts want us to hear
• Anjana Ahuja: If scientists can use animal eggs in which to insert human DNA they don't need human eggs
• Caitlin Moran: Beverage Concepts will be facilitating humanity's desire to drink the carbonated essence of Hendrix

And in the rest of the papers…

• Janet Daley: (The Daily Telegraph) - The prisons crisis - at the heart of this fiasco is the belief that words equal action
• Philip Johnston: (The Daily Telegraph) - In just nine months' time, the analogue signal will go off in Whitehaven and the many questions surrounding the Government's great leap forward will begin to be answered
• Jim White: (The Daily Telegraph) - Trying to bring nature in line with existing health and safety guidelines only diminishes our understanding and our respect for it. That is where the real danger lies
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: (The Independent) - I feel British, but I don't want enforced patriotism
• Johann Hari: (The Independent) - The real solution to our prisons crisis
• Andreas Whittam Smith: (The Independent) - Ségolène, Hillary, and their big conversations
• Madeleine Bunting: (The Guardian) - Hysteria over the gay adoption row, while Iraq is barely debated, reflects a wider insecurity among liberal progressives
• Yudit Kiss: (The Guardian) - East European racists are giving new muscle to the continental far right by preying on the losers from the region's upheaval
• John Reid: (The Guardian) - Problems at the Home Office are deep-seated. That's why it needs reform - not another minister
• Leader: Sinn Fein takes a key step towards shared power - Independent

And from around the world...

• Stephen J Hadley: (Washington Post) - The National Security Adviser argues that any plan that limits the US's ability to reinforce troops is a plan for failure - and could hand Baghdad to terrorists and extremists
• Michael Barone: (The Wall Street Journal) - Bush, Clinton, Bush-Clinton? It sounds like the War of the Roses
• Myriam Levy: (Le Figaro - France) - Ségolène and the Socialist Party's risky diplomacy - if there is one area where words have a precise meaning, it is definitely foreign affairs
• Dominique Moisi: (Japan Times) - It is tempting for Europeans to view Asia as replaying the power games of late 19th-century Europe, with China in the role of Germany
• Editorial: The 23-month campaign - If Hillary vs. Obama vs. Rudy vs. McCain is already starting to feel old, remember that there are more than 600 days to go - New York Times

Comments

[John Hirst]

I met Harry Woolf in the Special Unit of H.M. Prison Hull, when he was conducting his inquiry into the Strangeways Prison riot. He was impressed with the Special Unit because it was smaller than the normal prison wing with accommodation for 20 inmates instead of 200, and this led him to conclude that smaller more manageable prisons with smaller more manageable numbers is the way forward for the penal system.

This is at odds with John Reid's article where he states that New Labour is responsible for "bringing 300,000 more offences to justice every year than five years ago". And, "We have delivered almost 20,000 more prison places since 1997 and I put in place plans for another 8,000 last year".

I feel that Gordon Brown is right for the wrong reasons not to fund the building of 8,000 more prison places. We need to be engaging on a reductionist policy for our prison system. This will allow for one to one treatment facilities to enable effective rehabilitation to prevent re-offending which serves the aim of public protection.