Birmingham Prison in Crisis

The news that Birmingham Prison is to return to government control is very welcome. What has been going on there is a blot upon the civilised values of the whole nation. You can judge the inner core of a country by the state of its prisons. A Birmingham situation suggests the core, if not rotten, is rotting. This blog has never supported prisons run by private contractors. Some services are just not for profit and never should be. Prisons are certainly one of them.

Rory Stewart, the prisons minister, is one of the best intellects in the Commons and already has a distinguished career as historian, diplomat, writer and broadcaster. If anyone can sort out the mess our whole prison system has become, he can. That is if the brawling mob the Tory party in parliament and government has become, allows him to do the job as he sees fit.