COMMENT: The legal system is in disarray
If proof were needed that the British justice system is a mess, take three unconnected stories from the courts in this newspaper today.
A drug addict who offloaded £10,000 worth of stolen camera equipment and jewellery taken in two separate raids gets a suspended prison sentence.
A driver who went more than 70mph in a 30mph zone to escape police, in a car bought for £20 and a mobile phone, gets a suspended sentence.
And a drink driver who stole a £10,000 JCB and drove it down a main road in Wolverhampton gets a fine, unpaid work, a curfew and a driving ban.
These are from one day in the courts of the West Midlands.
And they force us to ask the question of our criminal justice system: What does someone have to do to be put behind bars any more?
The justice secretary Michael Gove is absolutely correct to launch a stinging attack on what he calls the 'two nation' justice system.
The wealthy get the highest standards of court services to bring civil actions while the ordinary victims of crime get failed badly.
So is the rest of society.
There is no deterrent, no real punishment and little more than a slap on the wrist for those who break the law and, in some cases, pose a real danger to the lives of others.
Our courts are in danger of appearing to be silently complicit in reducing the British sense of justice to little more than a numbers game, of fines and surcharges, of lip service unpaid work and bureaucracy in place of genuine, meaningful retribution.
This newspaper has long been a supporter of the view of the former Conservative leader and home secretary Michael Howard: "Prison works."
The Tories have long talked the talk on crime.
Now they have been rewarded with the majority government that eluded them after the previous General Election, it is time for them to live up to their promises.
If there is not enough space in our prisons, build more.
If there is not enough in the budgets to come, fund them better.
There can be no excuses made, no leniency shown to those who care so little for the impact of their actions on decent people.
Prison protects the public from them. Anything less is effectively endorsing criminal behaviour by omission.
