In 1920, there were 11,000 prisoners in England and Wales. In 1980, there were 42,000 prisoners in England and Wales. Today, there are 85,500 prisoners in England and Wales. We send many more people to prison than our Edwardian ancestors did. I do find that deeply, deeply shocking, and it is something, I think, that we need to look at very, very seriously.

I believe that imprisonment is an appropriate and a serious punishment for those that deserve it. It needs to be the ultimate last resort that we have for those that commit very serious offences, and those that commit violent offences, serious offences against property, should expect a prison sentence. But the truth is that we have tens of thousands of people in prison who do not qualify under those criteria for the punishment of imprisonment, and, as Jenny Rathbone has eloquently outlined, the actual effectiveness of what we do to those people is highly, highly questionable.