What to do?

The Daily Post today tells us that a man who raped and murdered an 86-year-old woman less than 24 hours after being released from prison must serve at least 20 years. Elfyn Bryn Jones, now 30, of Trefnant, Denbighshire – who savagely murdered Eila Williams in 2001 – argued his remorse, reformed ways and good behaviour in jail should mean an earlier release date.

However, Mr Justice Owen yesterday told him the sheer horror of the attack on the vulnerable pensioner, who was a complete stranger to him, meant that 20 years was fair. In the early hours of April 7, 2001, Jones pushed his way into the frail pensioner’s home in Clwydian Park Crescent, Trefnant, before forcing her into her bedroom and raping her. After inflicting a sickening array of injuries on his victim, he set fire to the house and carried her outside, leaving her naked by the side of the road where she was found two hours later.

This comes just as the Justice ministry reveals that Criminals on probation committed more than 1,000 serious crimes over the last two years, including nearly one murder a week in England and Wales. And we continue to hear of adults who treat babies and toddlers worse than rabid dogs. Meanwhile, an ever-increasing number of 'conditions' appear to afflict school pupils, with what was once considered simply 'bad behaviour' now being re-named as 'Attention deficit disorder'.

There are undoubtedly those in society who do suffer from severely disabling and extremely dangerous mental conditions and, having once visited the notorious Park Lane hospital in Merseyside, we have met some of those people close-up. But you can't tell a murderer just from looking at them. In fact, they could be anyone - from the chap at the pub to the lady in the dry cleaners.

The big question - as the UK now imprisons a bigger percentage of its population than any other European country - is what we do about a worrying situation. It seems, from what's above, that prison simply doesn't work. Many, in fact, would argue prison simply serves as a sort of training ground for criminals, to help them learn the ways of the underworld and become better at what they do. But the purpose of prison is theoretically twofold: punishment and rehabilitation. Depriving them of their liberty is the punishment, but what of the second half? Dostoyevsky's literary masterpiece on this very subject cleverly juxtaposed criminality with moral perceptions, but it's not the sort of thing you read on the beach. However, in this country, we need to protect our people from the criminal, the criminally insane and the opportunist, but is prison the answer?

Building more prisons may seem like the solution but perhaps we need more investment in the rehabilitation aspect of criminality. Then, perhaps, we could justly claim to be a fair and compassionate society.