After Birmingham, who can we trust to run our jails?

A G4S drug search dog and officer patrol the perimeter of Birmingham prison, which has this week been taken over by the Ministry of Justice.Perhaps the most depressing aspect of the current prison mess (Failures at private jail are reflection of broader crisis, MoJ is warned, 21 August) is that events were both predictable and avoidable.Many of us have warned ministers of successive governments, both privately and in reports, over many years that the situation we see today was an inevitable