Airports can be a punishing experience

THERE’S a lot of talk at the moment about the state of our prisons.

- SUSAN LEE

Clearly, the new PM has arrived in Downing Street and, settling in to what is essentially a furnished rented home, went poking about in some old drawers only to uncover an abandoned file marked ‘shocking crisis’.

As well as some mothballs and a guide to the combi-boiler.

Seriously, though, Keir Starmer has said things are ‘worse than he thought’ with regard to our jails and announced he wants to reduce the number of people going to prison with ‘too many’ finding themselves back behind bars “relatively quickly”.

Put simply, we have too many prisoners and not enough prisons.

Now, I know this is a serious issue and a divisive one at that.

The question of proportionate crime and punishment always is. And I don’t wish to diminish how important it is to treat offenders accordingly and make sure victims see justice.