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Ah right- I thought there'd be a few more comments this morning!

To Martin Maloney with 4 likes and 27 dislikes from Ian Craine with 34 likes and 13 dislikes- perhaps it's better to be silly than pompous. Not that I was being silly; it's the truth as I and many others see it. It's just that we disagree, and many others would take your part. That's life.

To Lazarus Law- there is of course a difference between solicitors who don't know the law, and solicitors who do but feel justified in breaking laws they disagree with. Most former laws that are regarded in retrospect as unjust were repealed as a result initially of brave souls who broke them.

To Kiri Luckham- Yes there is a significant difference between drink driving and using a mobile phone in prison. Drink driving is wrong per se. A mobile phone is just a means of communication. It's the purpose to which it is put. A mobile phone can be used for proper means inside prison or out, and for improper means.

To all of you- we are not of course singing from the same hymn sheet. I have not practised for ages so I look at these things as a partial outsider but as one who has great affection for my profession. As a practising solicitor one is just too busy most of the time to think outside the box.

The bigger point I was trying to make would involve the shocking state of Britain's prisons and the complete inability (lack of will I would say) on the part of this Government to alter that. Rehabilitation must surely be the principal aim of incarceration. The punishment is deprivation of liberty itself not all sorts of add-ons like Grayling's absurd banning of books.

To prepare prisoners for subsequent release they need to be encouraged to lead as normal a life as is possible in a fixed location. Use of a mobile phone by a prisoner is not inherently wrong, nor is contact with the outside world. Contact between a prisoner and his solicitor by mobile phone is certainly not wrong providing the solicitor is not conniving at criminal activity which would not normally be the case.

Expediency rules our worlds these days I fear. Presumptions of guilt abound- a prisoner using a mobile phone; s/he must be up to no good. Just think if any of us went inside- all the arrangements needing to be made, and most of them by phone.