Conditions in some of the UK's prisons are scandalous. Inspectors found some prisons to be dirty, vermin-infested places, with frightening levels of violence and prisoners having easy access to illegal drugs. Some critics attribute the poor management of these prisons to the fact that the government has allowed private companies to run many prisons, although inspectors also criticised some state-run prisons. Others say the real problem is one of drastic funding cuts, affecting both state-run and privately-run prisons. Either way, we have allowed the situation to become very serious – and why? Because for the most part, we do not care. The truth is that, personally, we can much better imagine that at some point we'll need a clean, well-run hospital than a decent criminal justice system.