Do you Support Tougher Sentencing Policies?

This is a difficult question because I think it is dangerous to generalise.

In this country we now have the largest ever prison population. We put more people behind bars than any other European country. In fact in many cases we put too many people in prison for minor offences.

For me the question has always been about finding the appropriate sentence to rehabilitate the individual concerned. In some cases that may mean a long prison sentence for a murder or rape or violent crime. But in other cases it may mean something else completely. Surely what is best is what works and the answer to that is not always prison.