UK justice system has blind spot

BRITAIN has the highest prison population in Western Europe. Almost 160 men and women per 100,000 of the population in England and Wales; a bit less in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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The numbers have been rising remorselessly for decades. It's one reason our jails are bursting at the seams (the other being a chronic failure to match those real-life figures with new prisons).

And yet debate about the length of sentences for the most serious crimes - almost always crimes of extreme violence - is growing.

This week we were reminded of the case of Tina Nash. What Tina, below, went through at the hands of her abusive partner in 2011 beggars belief.