It’s the sort of shocking detail that can bring out the worst instincts in even the most liberal among us.

Revelations that less is spent on food for hospital patients than for prisoners serving time in Inverness prison have provoked a perfectly understandable backlash. And the temptation to join in is strong.

It is, according to the Scottish Conservatives, “outrageous” that cons are better fed than prisoners. The party’s deputy leader – Rachel Hamilton – says both the public and victims of crime will “rightly question” why criminals receive higher quality meals than patients do.

This attack maintains the long-standing political tradition of trying to foment outrage at the treatment of those behind bars. For as long as I can remember, the suggestion that jail is nothing more than a holiday camp has endured among politicians of the right.

We are regularly invited to feel aggrieved about the supposedly luxurious lifestyles of those doing time. Jail’s supposed to be a punishment and we let these animals watch television and play computer games, don’t you know?

But Scotland’s prisons aren’t boutique hotels. The prison estate is crumbling and, in many cases, thanks to overcrowding and........

© Evening Express