WE are told that there have been 604 assaults since 2003 at the YOI Portland. Surprise, surprise!

There is an old saying that idle hands breed mischief. At the YOI these days there is no community work, no weekend sports. Sports fields are unused. Etc etc.

Back in 2003 the suits, the so-called experts, were telling the staff at the YOI that the regime was too brisk and workmanlike. Staff should not give orders in a loud voice there was also talk of brutality.

Many people reacted to all this. We who had worked at the YOI stated publicly that there was no regime of brutality. If there was an isolated incident the officer would lose his job, having been reported by other officers.

Prisoners have a right to be protected in prison, as do staff. There would not have been that many assaults in recent times if the staff were allowed to operate a firm, fair, brisk, humane regime where inmates were made to work and to learn respect for themselves and others.

I wrote to the then Prison Minister Paul Boateng that he was making a mistake in changing the regime. He knew better, of course, than me - though I had 40 years' service, had worked my way through the ranks to governor and had received the first Margery Fry Award for the humane rehabilitation programmes I had introduced in a tough London prison.

The prison inspectors who recently closed the Portland prison ship stated that the conditions were not humane (two prisoners to a cell, with a shower and TV). The prisoners told me they loved being there. Now the Government is paying £800 per week to lock them up nearly 23 hours per day (accommodation crisis).

Here is a solution that should be tried, especially with young offenders. Open up an educational prison, where the staff are volunteers and are dressed in civilian clothing. The inmates sign a contract to go there to learn a skill, learn to read and write, and learn good citizenship.

If the inmates progress they should be given early release on licence. If they re-offend the subsequent sentence should be longer. Community work should also be part of the programme, so the inmates learn respect for others and the community.

Staff should be allowed to take university courses, set up especially for prison staff to gain a qualification in prison welfare and rehabilitation.

I am not blaming the governor or staff at the YOI. Look at the state of the unused sports field around the institution. In my day all inmates, every weekend, were told they must play football or cricket or do community work. They had no time to assault each other. Now every weekend young men are locked up with each other in the prison wings. Previously many inmates joined sports clubs on release. Guys Marsh Borstal had a forty per cent success rate of inmates not re-offending, thanks to a progressive regime - good for society, good for inmates.

The politicians destroyed the regimes overnight. Of course, everything wasn't perfect but it was so much better than it is now.

Prison officers are good people who always get a bad press. They do not have the resources of the police or fire service but their work is ten times harder.

Prisoners, in the main, cannot read or write, and have typically faced exclusion in schools because of a bad upbringing. While serving a sentence they should be given humane treatment and a regime that addresses the anger that many feel about being one of life's losers.

To the public who feel that prison is too soft ("They should not have TV" etc) I say this: Loss of freedom is punishment; losing dignity and being locked up 23 hours a day is punishment enough.

It is in society's interest to try and change attitudes, and to give staff professional standing and qualifications so that they can better try to rehabilitate offenders.

We need a complete rethink on our penal policy in this country. Prison officers - the people who are with the inmates 24 hours a day - need to be fully committed to reform; we need professional courses and qualifications to upgrade their standing. Prisoners need to be doing something with their time -working and learning, so that they can become decent members of society. At the moment we have the opposite, with facilities constantly being cut back and the tensions that result from prisoners idling their time away.

To those who say we can't afford to be putting more resources into our prison system I can only say it's cheaper in the long run.

D S L JULIAN.

Old Castle Road, Weymouth.