Philip is cross about a story in the paper. A burglar, who admits to 25 crimes, has avoided being sent to prison.

‘Why don’t they lock him up?’ he demands indignantly. ‘That’s what he deserves! And if he’s let off lightly like this, other burglars won’t be frightened of committing crimes. The courts have got to get tougher!’

But Phoebe is not completely convinced. ‘What will happen when he gets out of prison, Philip? Surely, he’ll just go straight back to burgling again. And anyway, it costs an enormous amount of money to keep criminals in prison – we can’t afford to jail them all.’

‘Hummph! Well, at least he wouldn’t be doing any burgling if he was behind bars for a bit,’ responds Philip. ‘That’s got to be better than nothing.’

***

Who is right? Philip or Phoebe? Should burglars be imprisoned, or punished in some other way? And why do we lock people up in prisons at all?

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