Roger Graef  OBE, is CEO of Films of Record, an award winning production company and ambassador of Make Justice Work.

“We know that prison ‘is an expensive way of making bad people worse’ – according to a Conservative White Paper in 1990. Nothing has changed. Overcrowding means those modest rehab programs are swamped. And we also know that keeping ties with the local community – family, and personal relationships – is the best prevention of repeat offending. And the myth of deterrence is proved by the high percentage of repeat offenders back in prison. If deterrence works, prisons would be empty. Instead, it increases the chances of the convicted person returning to crime – and their younger siblings and children as well. Hardly the outcome we pay such a high price for.”