YESTERDAY'S report that prisoners should get an increased payment when they leave jail was manna for the tabloids and for people who don't care to think beyond the headlines.

At first glance, it is despicable that the Government is even contemplating giving a hand-out from our hard-earned taxes to convicts.

But on second thoughts...

If a prisoner were to be freed without any money, they would have to resort to crime just to fund their first meal. And if they cannot afford a roof over their head, they will immediately be homeless, roaming the streets where they are more likely to descend into crime and drugs.

Any crime costs the victim far more than the £100 being proposed as a release grant - even an apparently petty theft like a shoplift, a purse snatch or a car radio grab costs hugely in terms of emotional damage and the inconvenience of having to stop your credit cards or having to replace your car window. If a grant of £100 stops such a crime, it is money well spent.

In fact, much of yesterday's report by the Social Exclusion Unit makes welcome reading. It recommends, for instance, that the money criminals earn for their work in jail should go either to fund victim support groups or to pay victims compensation. As victims' needs are often woefully disregarded by the criminal justice system, this sounds like a step forward.

Some of the report even makes extraordinary reading. For example, it says that proper housing and links with employers or Jobcentres should be arranged before a prisoner is released. This suggests we are simply lobbing these people onto the street without any thought about how they may stay on the straight and narrow - truly extraordinary.

Tony Blair was right when he wrote in his introduction to the report: "We need to make sure that a prison sentence punishes the offender, but also provides the maximum opportunity for reducing the likelihood of reoffending."

Prison is about more than just punishment. It is about ensuring that, in the future, there are no more victims of crime. If these ideas can take us closer to that goal, their cost will have been worthwhile.