I was struck by two contrasting quotes yesterday. Firstly, the mother of teenager Ashleigh Hall, murdered by Peter Chapman after he befriended her on Facebook, told ITV's This Morning, 'He shouldn't be allowed human rights; he's not human, is he?' Then on the BBC's Ten O'Clock News Kate Carroll, the widow of Constable Stephen Carroll, murdered by dissident republicans in Northern Ireland one year ago, invited her husband's killers to try talking to politicians or to talk to her, saying she was happy to speak with them 'because everybody is a human being.'

Today we learn from the National Audit Office that reoffending by thousands of criminals serving short prison terms in England and Wales costs the taxpayer up to £10bn a year. Around 60,000 prisoners are jailed for less than 12 months each year, most spending as few as 45 days inside at a cost greater than that of a highly intensive two-year community order involving unpaid work and rehabilitation schemes.

One of the problems, as identified by Jonathan Burnside in the chapter on criminal justice in Votewise Now! is that ''Doing justice' is increasingly defined in terms of prosecuting and punishing more people ... It is part of a consumerist approach to justice which holds that we increase the quantum of justice by making it easier to prosecute and punish more people ... One of the consequences of this approach is that more and more people are caught up in the criminal justice process for less and less serious offences.'

We have discussed previously what it means to take seriously the biblical concept of all humans being made in the image of God. We asked yesterday whether we all too easy get caught up in the knee-jerk reaction to brand others as 'evil'. The question for today and the coming general election concerns how we regard and treat offenders: will we allow fear to dictate our responses or will we heed the call to love our neighbour as ourselves? Do we want to create a culture of control, or do we want to build a relational society?

'You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.' (Matthew 5:43-45)

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