Felonious Accommodations

One of the more reliable indications that the Government doesn't particularly care about something is that the relevant department is placed in the charge of Chris Graybeing or the jabbering homunculus Michael Gove. Such is the Conservative Party's interest in justice that the hilariously misnamed Ministry has been fortunate enough to endure them both, with expectably brilliant results. Graybeing tried to rehabilitate offenders by refusing them access to books; the probation service has been turned to the redemption of some private companies' profits; the courts have suffered an IT meltdown; and sex offenders are being put up in hotels without proper monitoring because there is no room in the prison system and the Government has not seen fit to train sufficient staff. A report by Her Majesty's inspectorates of prisons and probation also notes that safeguarding checks are not being carried out, that not enough is being done to protect children, and that a third of released offenders are not visited at home. The Minister for Profitable Incarceration said that convicted sex offenders in hotels are really quite rare and in any case perfectly safe; in all fairness, they are almost certainly less numerous than the homeless people expiring within yards of the House of Expenses Claimants, and the relevant services have, after all, spent time under the care of Messrs Gove and Graybeing. The Minister said that the Government would work very hard to get somebody to do something about it; so presumably HM Inspectorate of Prisons and HM Inspectorate of Probation can look forward to being privatised in the near future.