How can Chris Grayling deny our prisons crisis? | Simon Jenkins

Successive prisons inspectors sound the alarm about our overcrowded, violent jails, but British politicians dont want to kick the habit

The British are prison addicts. We scour the country for reasons to imprison. We jail for not having a television licence, for Googling in jury rooms, for smoking cannabis, for hacking a phone, for swapping points, for perjury or, the latest obsession, historic sex abuse. Every week someone over 60 is jailed for actions unreported 30 or 40 years ago. In the pa...