PORRIDGE.

One of the BBC’s favourite themes is that no one should go to prison (apart perhaps from those who won’t recycle or those who drive “gas guzzlers) and so one can imagine the delight with which they have welcomed the news that the liberal lobbying group NACRO is bidding to actually run two prisons. On the Today programme this morning the main BBC concern was that NACRO’s bid was in conjunction with a private security company and we all know that the private sector can’t really be trusted, right? There was no examination of the liberal NACRO agenda and how this relates to public concerns that prison regimes are already far too soft. It strikes me that the BBC keeps running stories themed around the thesis that the UK needs fewer prisons and less prisoners and those that we do retain should have liberalised regimes to help the convicts feel better about themselves.