The similarities between Jack Ballo’s son’s early life described in the short film “Quiet Storm” and Jack Abbott’s early life described in his book “In the Belly of the Beast” are remarkable. Firstly, the foster care which went wrong, leading to institutional care via correction centres and then prison – a truly slippery slope. Secondly, the seemingly inadequate preparation for release into civilian society.

Judging by the recent case of Raoul Moat’s inadequate preparation for release from Durham prison, it seems Britain also has a problem with its preparation for the release of prisoners into civilian society.

Although the media circus surrounding Raoul Moat’s death was somewhat disgusting, the lack of preparation before his release was even more disappointing. Why weren’t his significant others pre-warned of his imminent release? Why weren’t his allegedly threatening comments pre-release acted upon? What good did the 18 weeks in prison do Raoul Moat, the victims of his crime, his partner, his family, his local community or anyone else?

We must find a better solution than prison – especially for sentences as short as 18 weeks!

PS Many thanks too for your expert advice on re-sizing the embedded YouTube video clip.

In case you missed it in the Sunday Times on 27 June 2010, you might enjoy fellow car enthusiast Jeremy Clarkson’s thoughts on our prison system:

“No prison for you – just lick my cesspit clean

Rather than spending lots of money sending criminals to prison, why not get them to do a few nasty odd jobs around the house instead?

For reasons that are not entirely clear, the question of prison reform seems to have cropped up again. Good. It’s very important we reform the system so that prisons become disgusting and unhinged. No electricity. No light. No heat.

And full to overflowing with inmates who are allowed to eat only what they can catch, or grow in window boxes. Window boxes that they must make from their own fingernail clippings. Unfortunately, other people think that prisons should be about rehabilitation rather than punishment.

That they should be places for quiet reflection, whale song and afternoon poetry by interesting lesbians. Dostoevsky thought this. And so, to a certain extent, did Winston Churchill.

There is even a charity that exists to campaign for the rights of inmates and their families. And I’m sorry, but isn’t that a bit weird? Because when you decide to help those less fortunate than yourself, there are so many worthy candidates. People with no homes, no arms and no chance. People with hideous diseases. People with their heads on back to front. And that’s before we get to the heart-melting question of children and animals. So why, I wonder, did someone wake up one day and think, “I know who I’ll help. The man who stole my bicycle”?

It actually happened, though, and as a result we now have the Prison Reform Trust, which apparently believes that a prison sentence should be used only for the likes of Peter Sutcliffe. And even then, that he should be treated with tenderness and a lot of crisp Egyptian cotton.

Well, let me make something quite plain to the lily-livered eco-hippie vicars who think this way. If you come round to my house this evening, asking if I’d like to buy the man who stole my television a gift, I shall say, “Yes. But only if I can shove it up his bottom.”

It gets worse. Only last week one of the peace’n’love brigade tried to claim that Britain’s judiciary was in love with custodial sentences. Really? Because recently a furore erupted over a case in which Cherie Booth QC told a man found guilty of breaking another man’s jaw that he would not go to prison because he was a religious person.

On that basis, the devout Osama Bin Laden can hand himself in, knowing Cherie will simply fine him 50 quid. And the Archbishop of Canterbury now has carte blanche to kill as many badgers, and children, as he likes.

Strangely, however, the Haight-Ashbury views of the trust are shared by the outgoing head of the prison service. Yup. Mr Mackay wants fewer people sent to jail as well. And so, too, do the Prison Governors Association and Napo, the probation officers’ union.

Such is the weight of opinion behind the call for more community-based punishments, I decided to do a spot of research. And I uncovered some interesting statistics. Last year 55,333 people were jailed for six months or less, at a cost of £350m. And apparently, as much as £300m could be saved if they were given community jobs to do instead. That’s a powerful argument, now that an ice cream costs £700.

And consider this. It seems that only 34% of criminals given community punishments reoffend, compared with 74% of those sent to a nice warm prison.

It’s easy to see why this might be so. At present, criminals tend to mix with other criminals. I, for instance, do not know any smugglers or murderers, and in all probability you don’t either. That’s because these people live in a society where their crimes are considered the norm. At my old school, the worse the misdemeanour, the greater the so-called “lad values” that encouraged us all to be more and more badly behaved. And I dare say it’s much the same story in Wandsworth nick.

Before you think I’ve gone all soft, consider this. If we take them out of their cells, dress them in orange jump suits, shackle their legs together and get them to hoe the municipal roundabouts in our local towns and villages, then they will no longer be among their own. They will be among us.

As a result, we will be able to tell them things. And after they’ve spent six months on a roundabout, being told things, quite loudly, they may start to understand that their life is not normal and there is nothing particularly brilliant about shoving a pint pot into another man’s face.

How brilliant is that? The hippie vicars are happy because the crims are out in the open air, getting fit and doing something useful. And we’re happy, too — especially if we are allowed to throw things at them as we drive by. Tomatoes. Eggs. Bricks. And so on.

I’m starting to like this community punishment idea very much. And already I’m thinking of jobs around my house that need doing. Painting. Decorating. Licking the cesspit clean. Think. The offender would be able to see how a normal family lives and I would be allowed to call him names and hit him over the head with a stick.

Criminals could be made to retrieve shopping trolleys from Britain’s most disgusting canals. They could be made to perform dangerous stunts at theme parks with killer whales and lions. And put the cones out on motorways. Imagine Boy George being made to put his head up a cow’s bottom to see if its calf is the right way round while you call him names and pelt his backside with veg.

It gets better. Because if lags are made to pick up litter and weed central reservations, we’ll need fewer expensive prisons, it will save local authorities a fortune and, what’s more, the decent people currently employed by councils to do menial jobs would become free to earn a proper living in the private sector — inventing wireless routers that work, for example.

I can see now that my views on prison have always been naive. And I can see why prison officers are so in favour of community punishment instead. Because, to put it simply, everyone wins.”

Thankfully it seems that another car enthusiast, Justice Minister Ken Clarke, also shares broadly similar views with Jeremy Clarkson on the need for a rehabilitation revolution.

I think your rehabilitation/boot camp idea ought to be a part of this revolution (particularly for more intransigent offenders) so we should spread the word.