"Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime." So it went.

Or not so tough perhaps. TV’s, Playstations, ready access to home comforts, all part of the modern prison system. And it may not be such a bad thing if it helps to rehabilitate some of our burgeoning prison population.

But there should probably be some limits to this liberal approach to imprisonment. The Sun reports prison guards at Verne Prison in Portland, Dorset unwittingly allowed convicted drug dealer, Mohamed Jalloh, to grow cannabis in his cell and even decorate one 4ft plant as a Christmas Tree. Despite growing the plants in full view of the prison, it took a bit of snitching by a fellow inmate and some time researching on Google for the hapless guards to work out what the plants were.

With the Chirstmas Tree gone, the festive season won’t be quite so merry.