Wasn’t it Winston Churchill who said that you should send people to prison as punishment not for punishment? His point was that once prisoners were locked up that the conditions in which they are staying should be humane. How you manage this in a prison system which the Howard League For Penal Reform estimates holds more than 70% of prisoners suffering from two or more mental health disorders and around a fifth have four of the five major mental health disorders is something to which New Labour is probably “working towards”.

Even the most casual reader of this site will probably have guessed that I am not a big giver to cop and prison officer benevolent associations but this report in The Guardian leapt out as a very sensible idea and it gives a rare legitimate opportunity to display some pictures of cute puppies on this site.

Hydebank is a combined young offender and women’s prison in a leafier part of Belfast run by a longstanding Norn Iron Prison Service manager. That’s the one that used to routinely assault its guests and so you’d expect that it wouldn’t be open to more emotionally literate ways of dealing with vulnerable young offenders. You wouldn’t be that wrong either. The institution was slammed in a 2008 inspection for excess use of strip searches, lock down and hostile staff attitudes to inmates. Just like the old days.

Its current governor has introduced a “pet therapy” project for some inmates. If you’ll forgive the pun this is an idea with a long pedigree. Some sheltered dwellings for old people invite pet owners to bring in their animals because they have a stimulating and positive effect on residents who are frequently deprived of sensory or tactile stimulation and as any pet owner will confirm it’s sometimes easier to get on with animals than people.

The prison is not spending a lot of money on the project. It involves just two dogs, some kennels, dog food and various bits and pieces. It must work out a lot cheaper than more punitive ways of controlling inmates and is infinitely more useful. It allows the withdrawn and depressed to express themselves and it teaches caring skills. As a way of passing time in jail it’s a lot better than doing drugs or watching daytime TV.

Now there are a lot of contenders for the daftest loudmouth in Belfast. One of the front runners is a radio presenter called Stephen Nolan who is of the view that the best possible way to spend several years in prison is the drugs, TV and upgrading crime skills option. Those of you more familiar with his approach can fill in the details but he’s has gone for the indignant Daily Mail approach which boils down to “make the bastards suffer and let them come out angrier and more unemployable than when they went in.” That’s a slight paraphrase.

The prison is doing a couple of other things right. It lets young offenders shop and cook for themselves once a week, maybe the first time some of them have ever done so. It sometimes permits children to stay overnight with their families. Only an utter imbecile could find fault with that. Children suffer when a parent is locked up. It adversely affects their behaviour and education and can be a source of great stigma, though that used to rather depend on what daddy was in for in the north.

Since New Labour got elected the prison population has increased from just over 60 000 to 83,962. That is the highest rate in Western Europe.  Mental health issues, special educational needs, race and poverty are among the big indicators for someone likely to end up inside. Demanding that once inside prisoners are given a civilised regime and clean comfortable accommodation as well as a chance to address the issues that got them locked up in the first place is not that radical.