Whenever we get one of these 'outraged of Milton Keynes' threads about an escaped prisoner, especially from an open prison, I feel my heart sinking.

The open prison system is there to help prepare inmates for their re-introduction to society. It occasionally goes wrong - name me something that does not. We never hear about the times it goes right, and an inmate manages to start a new life without incident. (Even murderers - there is a semi-famous actor in the UK, Leslie Grantham, who was convicted of murder and has since release, managed a fairly decent life - if you don't count the crime of Eastenders).

Before getting your panties in a twist, I suggest (once again) that one decides whether convicts will ever come back out into society. If you believe that all criminals sent to prison should stay there forever (and are willing to pay the economic costs for supervising so many people without hope) then open prisons and their ilk are clearly useless and dangerous.

If however, you expect that convicts will, at some point return to society (ie possibly live near to you and your family) then it is in society's interest that they be rehabilitated for this purpose, not brutalised. At present, most western prisons are simply schools for incredible brutality and learning how to live like an animal - with specialists in drugs, new methods of crime and dehumanisation. A large number of criminals go in illiterate and innumerate, and despite the opportunity for the state to rectify this with a captive audience, they come out the same. Instead of being prepared for a useful job which they might prosper in, they have learnt better methods for criminality.

No point in bellowing simplistic slogans about 'having it too easy'. Get upset about the schools of crime that your taxes pay for, and think hard about what you want to replace it. Remember, they are coming out.