THEY say that "the old 'uns are the best" and there is no more hoary chestnut for debate than "does prison work?"

Specifically, this morning the question is whether the locking up of young offenders works.

A statistic in the report by Nacro - the National Association for the Care and Rehabilitation of Offenders - is startling: ''Reoffending rates for young offender institutions are as high as 84 per cent."

As preventing re-offending must be one of such institutions' priorities, it is clear that they do not work. So perhaps more community-based sentences, as Nacro advocates, should be considered.

However, these institutions are also designed to protect the public from young hoodlums. There are communities in the North-East which, in recent years, have been terrorised by youngsters who seem able to misbehave with impunity.

For peace of mind, the last thing these communities want is to see the offender, once he has been finally caught, put straight back on the streets to carry out some form of non-custodial sentence.

To these communities, the longer the offender is locked within an institution, the better that institution is doing its job.

Such contradictory stances illustrate that it is impossible for a government to legislate on how we should deal with all young offenders. Each case is different. Yet, above all else, this Government wants to look as tough as tough can be - which means locking more people away.

This policy may have superficial appeal to voters, but it doesn't necessarily solve the voters' fundamental problem of how to stop crime.

There is another startling statistic in all this. Gill Palin of the Aycliffe Secure Unit says: "Ninety per cent plus (of inmates at Aycliffe) have been either emotionally, sexually or physically abused."

In other words, these institutions are picking up the pieces of young lives which have been fractured by those closest to them.

It would be better if the debate was not "does prison work" but "how come so many young lives are so wrecked that prison seems the only option"?

The answer to that debate would certainly include reference to more responsible parents and fewer illegal drugs.