Sleeping in the Shitter

A new method of looking after prisoners:

"Prisoners are having to sleep in toilets because of overcrowding at one English jail, the chief inspector of prisons revealed today."

No doubt this story will provoke the normal, well-rehearsed debate about prisoner rights. They'll be those who harp on about human rights and treating prisoners fairly fighting against those who believe that a prison sentence should be pretty much like going to a torture party in the lower bowels of Hades. I'm not going to go through those arguments here; my advice is try to avoid going to prison in the first place.

But this comment, from a prison inspector, did bring a smile to my lips:

"Resettlement provision had continued to improve and, in the context of a busy prison with a transient local population, was among the best we have seen"

Well, that's hardly surprising, is it? Most people would be open to a little resettlement, if it is a straight choice between that and sleeping in the shitter.