YOU would have thought when someone is given 10 months in prison they would serve 10 months.

Not so, some prisoners in fact serve only half the sentence.

It makes you wonder why this sentence was not the one passed down in the first place, instead of misleadingly long terms.

And our report today about Michael Parslow – freed three months into a 10-month term over a major road crash – today shows that sentences are being reduced even more.

It makes a mockery of our creaking justice system, one which has supposedly been strengthened through tough sentences for riot thugs.

Mr Parslow has expressed remorse for his crimes and says he can be a more productive member of society outside of prison.

That may be true. But he still needs to serve his time to, in some part, atone for what he has done, for his reckless driving that left a motorcylist with severe injuries.

We hope he has learned his lesson all the same. But there are many more – the hardened crimnial fraternity – who know how to play the system, who know full well that the risk of a crime is just a few months inside. Low sentences play right into their hands.