Well Guest, you almost quoted Disraeli there.
Bobjack, if you really think British prisons are hotels, I think you are over estimating the humanitarian aspects of our criminal justice system. The thought of spending a day in one gives me the creeps. I'd rather sleep under a tree.
When it comes down to it, most people are more willing to "talk tough" about crime than they are to visit vicious retribution on the perpetrators. One of my hopes for mankind lies in the fact that many folks are more willing to exercise mercy than they are to talk about it.