Research shows that offending is widespread among all social classes, especially among teenagers and young adults. The difference is who gets caught. The appalling vista laid out in the Guardian's investigation is so bleak it is tempting to believe nothing can be done. Moreover, mediation and reparation with their victims brings home to offenders the real consequences of their actions while prison makes them feel victimised. It should again be a last resort.
Safety does require some people to be locked up.
Prison can lead damaged people to reconsider their lives and learn new skills, take new options. The arts in prison are especially effective both as tools for expression beyond violence and as a route to education and social skills. They too suffer from lack of staff and resources. But to work effectively with those who need to be incarcerated, the prison service must be freed from the disastrous burden of those who could be dealt with effectively and far less expensively in the community. Moreover, for the vast majority of inmates, the loss of local connections with family, job and home sentences them again to return to crime.