Douglas Hurd didn’t say ‘prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse’ | Letter

Jon Silverman says that the often misattributed line was probably written by the civil servant David Faulker, but with one crucial difference In his letter about ever-lengthier prison sentences ( 18 August ), Nik Wood makes two familiar mistakes in attributing the quote “prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse” to Douglas Hurd.

In fact, the line appeared in a white paper published in 1990 by Hurd’s successor, David Waddington.

And there is no declaratory “is”.

Instead, it warns that “prison can be an expensive way of making bad people worse” unless other rehabilitative measures are taken.

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