There's no sense in who we lock up
LET me try to get this straight. Our prison population is at an all-time high of 83,000 and courts are being advised that custodial sentences should be avoided in many cases where there has been no violence or the criminals pose no threat to the public.
However, we have been able to find room to import African despot Charles Taylor, the blood-soaked former president of Liberia, who has been found guilty of 11 war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, terrorism and the use of child soldiers.
He is the first former head of state to be convicted of war crimes since the Second World War and yes, he could be coming to a jail near you.
It costs at least £40,000 a year to keep someone in prison and high-security costs even more. Taylor's high profile will add even more to the costs so, as he is 65 and has a sentence of 50 years, you and I will be keeping him in comfort and cable TV until his dying day.
Unless he gets out that is, whereupon we will probably give him a council house.