BRING BACK THE WORKHOUSE

I have opined here from time to time of the inadequacy of the criminal justice system when involved with many of the offenders whose lives are ruined by addiction and who are responsible for an estimated 70% of criminal activity.  Great numbers of them, if they have accommodation at all,  are usually housed in conditions where there is no permanence or support to assist their condition.  Mental health services can assist only a small minority of these people.  They spend their welfare money to obtain their drugs of choice and commit petty crime to live the rest of their poverty stricken lifestyles until their next court appearance.  This case reported in the Nottingham Post is repeated in substance many times daily in almost every large town in England.  Therefore is there not an economic and social argument to bring back the workhouse where, under appropriately qualified supervision, such miscreants could be offered basic housing where they could sleep with security and be induced to forgo their daily fix?   The costs would surely be worthwhile considering the unseen and off the balance sheet costs of their being in and out of the criminal justice system until the end of their foreshortened miserable existences.