The prison service - Dangerous, crowded and ineffective

THERE is an impression that our prisons are full of drug dealers lounging on bunk beds as they flick through the channels on their huge plasma screen TVs, all the while coo-cooing their budgies.

At the same time they keep their fingers in their sinister pies, retaining control of crime empires by using mobile phones. Sometimes they even call radio talk shows on their phones to defend their reputations.Occasionally, they are interrupted, possibly by a fellow inmate high on drugs or maybe with a trip to the gym to work on their pectorals.

There may be an element of truth, maybe even too much truth, in all of this but the wider reality is that our prisons are violent, grim places that are overcrowded and dirty, awash with drugs and intimidation.