How rationing became the fashion under the Tories

When Wandsworth Prison opened in south-west London in 1851, its Victorian architects thought it was fit for 1,000 inmates. Today it hosts 1,600. The conditions are worse than Dickensian: cells designed for one in the 19th century now house two, or more. Vermin are rife. A recent report labelled the prison “overcrowded” and “squalid”.Wandsworth is the norm rather than the exception. A prison estate with a capacity of 88,782—even allowing for Wandsworth-style overcrowding—holds 88,225. Judges, realising they had nowhere to send rogues, delayed sentencing. On October 16th the Conservative government reversed-engineered a solution: letting criminals out early and sending fewer of them to jail.