Open prison

IT may sound like a joke, or a particularly blue episode of Porridge, but burglar Rashpal Singh's decision to set up a brothel while on day release from prison is no laughing matter.

By The Newsroom

Published 13th Aug 2010, 21:23 BST

Updated 13th Aug 2010, 21:23 BST

Having been jailed for taking an imitation firearm into someone's home in order to steal, the South Yorkshire man could hardly have believed that he was allowed out from jail so early in his sentence. It is an absurd episode and clearly one that shocked the judge in Sheffield yesterday as well.

It makes a mockery of victims' suffering if unrepentant criminals are given their liberty while they are supposed to be serving a long sentence. The supervision of Singh is conspicuous only by its absence and Moorland Open Prison, in Doncaster, must take a close look at how it happened.

When Ken Clarke, the Justice Secretary, took issue with Michael Howard's view that "prison works", this was not the new era he envisaged. Singh deserves to be locked up, prison bosses need to get their house in order and the public, not for the first time when it comes to criminal justice, simply deserves better.