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Jacqui Smith examines the history of postwar prison reform.

In May, the government has promised "the biggest shake-up of prisons since Victorian times" in England and Wales. "For too long we have left our prisons to fester," said David Cameron. "So today, we start the long-overdue, long-needed change that our prisons need." But Mr Cameron was neither the first nor the last to promise major changes in the penal system. Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith goes back to basics to examine prison reform in England Wales since the 1950s.

The immediate post-war years saw a continuation of the pre-war liberal reforms, with flogging abolished in 1948, for example. But from the late 1950s onwards, concern about crime led politicians to enact harsher sentences and the prison population rose sharply. The key question now is whether the pendulum of public opinion has swung decisively away from a punitive model towards that of rehabilitation.

Produced by Arlene Gregorius.