Are prisons working?

What do we want our prisons to do? Do we want them to be places of punishment or places of rehabilitation or a mixture of both? Having worked in prisons several years ago I know first hand the problems that exist there. The different regimes, the different type of prisoner, the lack of suitable facilities for training and the shortage of qualified trainers. There is also the question of overcrowding in prisons, which has always been a problem despite efforts to reduce the inmate population. I think the general public  have a growing concern about how much of a deterrent prison is these days. Everyday we hear stories from the media highlighting the luxuries inmates have and how they are living the life of Riley. Let me assure you, the reality of life in prison is far from that. Most prisoners I found, just wanted to keep their head down, do their bird and get out as quickly as possible. The recidivist criminals are a different problem. Prison is a way of life to them, something that gives them an identity that they otherwise would not have. Rehabilitation is looked upon by them as a distraction to their day to day activities. For any first time offender prison life is a traumatic experience and most never re-offend. This is where rehabilitation should be paramount, so that something useful can be achieved whilst they are doing their sentence. There is no simple solution to how we deal with crime and punishment, especially in light of the Jon Venables case, which has resurrected all the horrors of the Jamie Bulger murder. Should he have been released so soon? Obviously not, but his counterpart Thompson, appears to have learnt how to conform to society. There is a clamour now for details to be released of why he was recalled to prison. Personally I don't feel they should be. He has obviously commited a serious enough offence to trigger off a return to prison, so there is every likelihood he will have to face another trial. That's when the details should be released, so that any future trial is not compromised. So, the question is, do we have a return to a more  austere type of prison regime, so that it is seen as a true place of punishment or do we increase the prison budget and build more prisons that have facilities to rehabilitate rather than punish prisoners? Whichever course we take, it is going to be a long process that needs careful thought to go into it rather than any knee-jerk reaction from politicians who have one eye on a forthcoming election.