Some people think that people who have committed crimes should do unpaid community work such as helping a charity or cleaning the streets, rather than spending time in prison. Do you agree or disagree?

Large numbers of people are being kept in prisons at the expense of the tax-payer, while environmental problems such as litter and social problems such as an ageing population are increasing. Could the solution to both issues be to train some prisoners to help in their communities? The idea of having prisoners working in the community is not attractive to everyone. Some people argue that this policy would just give them opportunities to escape. Others think that prisoners should be punished; not allowed to walk around freely. Besides, won’t they put people in the community at risk if they are allowed out of jail? These are fair arguments, although I would say that technology can help us get around some of the problems. For example, we can use electronic tags to make sure that prisoners do not run away. We also have more sophisticated psychological tests nowadays to check prisoners don’t pose a risk. Furthermore, the benefits of using prisoners for unpaid work is growing. There are no longer enough people of working age to allow society to lock up human resources. And governments in the modern world have many costly responsibilities, like policing the internet, testing new medicines, and paying for pensions, without having to maintain prisons. What’s more, giving prisoners meaningful jobs to do can help to reform them. If we keep them under lock and key, they will not be able to become useful citizens when they are released. To conclude, I recognise that this is a contentious debate but as technology changes and spending pressures increase, we should ask ourselves whether the benefits of setting prisoners to work have begun to outweigh the risks.