There are a few interesting comments on the
Magistrates blog right now.
Basically things are in such a state with the prisons that anyone sentenced to 28 days or less in prison gets immediately turfed out with a payment to help get their lives back on track without seeing the inside of a prison. In some cases people sentenced to 4 months also get punted before going through the gates of prison and compensated for having to sit in the back of a prison van.
Who says crime doesn't pay?