Prison Reform

So how to reform the current prison system? There must be a better way that at present...First some research into what prisoners currently have in most UK prisons (source: 4 different prison guards from 2 different prisons) and how much it costs per prisoner currently to provide the prison services: Access to the Internet Television in cells Sky TV or other Cable TV in cells Playstation / XBox in cells Free access to a gym and sports facilities (badminton, basketball, football, tennis) Library Opportunity to get degree level qualifications with no feesIn 2008, the cost to UK Taxpayers to keep a prisoner in a medium security prison: £77 per night. That equates to: £539 per week or £28,028 per year. Thats PER PRISONER!Now for the scary figure - if the prisoner is not in a medium security prison then the costs go up to £448.04 per night in high security (£163,534.60 per prisoner per year), and a whopping £459.52 per night spent in a police cell if there is not enough space in prison to accommodate the prisoner (£167,724.80 per prisoner per year).In November 2012, current figures are that there are 104,292 individuals in prison in the UK. If we optimistically plan that all of these prisoners are in a medium security prison, then this costs: £2,923,096,176 per year - thats nearly £3 billion. In reality, from what can be deciphered from the Ministry of Justices website, over 75,000 of the prisoners are in high or higher security prisons, meaning that the real bill is closer to £13,086,091,176 - thats £13 BILLION per year.Source: http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/prisons-and-probation/prison-population-figuresSo, how to cut that figure down...?Well, for starters, lets look at some more radical ideas from America (http://rmtweb.com/?p=629)Everyone that has read this article seems to agree that this is much more like what prison should be like, especially here in the UK.