For a number of years a large proportion of the country has held the belief that jails in the UK are a holiday camp.

A regular correspondent to the Adver recently reiterated this belief. I don’t believe this correspondent is writing from experience of spending time in jail, but just echoing the views and opinions of some sections of the media.

Maybe the recent report from the Chief Inspector of Prisons would have put paid to the holiday camp notion.

A couple of points made were, in the last eighteen months suicides have increased by 69 per cent, a big rise in self-harm incidents and violent assaults involving inmates up by 14 per cent.

Compared to jails in Africa and Latin America where jails are infested with rats, cockroaches and full of disease and illness, then some may view our jails as holiday camps, but I wonder how many of those would volunteer to spend a week in jail?

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling says there is no crisis. Surely a safe and decent prison system should be part of a civilised society. After reading the report, I don’t think there are many ‘wish you were here’ postcards sent from the UK’s jails.

Martin Webb Swindon Road Swindon