I saw a lovely photo the other day of a frosty spider’s web glinting in the early morning sun. How beautiful it was until I made the link with how razor wire has a similar glint. Impressive in terms of its ability to inflict horrific injuries, razor wire is everywhere although, to be fair, most of it is very high up.

Even so, there is a question of ethics: is it ok to mortally wound someone if they climb up a fence? I’m pretty sure that if anyone were to get up there, the razors would cause them to bleed out. Is that acceptable? Perhaps there could be a more proportional deterrent.

Speaking of proportional responses, I went to the health centre this week and came across a load of old guys in wheel chairs clearly in various states of disability. I don’t often go to the health centre so this was a new experience for me. All of them require help to move around and I was struck with how disgraceful it is that these guys are in prison. If prisons are not about revenge then what on earth is the justification for them being locked up?

I can’t be sure, of course, but I judged that these people are incapable of committing crime. Sadly, I’m not sure they have the capability of doing much at all so how does it help to create a safer Scotland by keeping them in prison?

This sort of question gets to the heart of what prisons are for. Are they a punishment, to rehabilitate, to prevent harm to society or to dish out revenge? Are they a tool for politicians to use to allow them to get more votes at the next election or places to put people because we aren’t clever enough to know what else to do with them?

Let us presume that they are guilty of committing maybe horrific crimes (though, as I have made clear previously, it is not a safe assumption that everyone in prison is actually guilty of committing the crimes for which they have been convicted). Well I still don’t see it as appropriate to keep them in a prison. It is cruel, inhuman, counterproductive and grotesquely expensive.

Surely it is a statement of logic to say that we only need people to be in prison who need to be in prison so to have these guys in here is it not a clear demonstration of the kind of society in which we live?

NaN.