"... And throw away the key?"

Watching Roger Brooking and Simon Cunliffe discussing the appalling results of our country's "correctional" policies left me deeply concerned.

In the first place, we had better give up the title Department of Corrections; nothing much is being corrected.

But the figures that drew my attention were the claims that about 80% of crime that results in imprisonment is related to alcohol and other drugs. And less than 5% of convicted criminals are required to enter drug rehabilitation programmes as part of their sentence.

Seems to me we haven't got a problem with prisons. We have got a problem with alcohol and other drugs.