Tougher sentencing, bigger prisons

Earlier this week John Ivison criticized Tory spending on increased prison capacity saying it's "tough on taxpayers and bad policy".

A couple of days ago near my neighbourhood there was an armed home invasion where one of the two collared perps was described as:

... a “prolific offender” with “quite a lengthy property-crime record.”

Forgive me for asking, but WTH was this guy doing on the street?  He must have been a known 'bad apple' before graduating to "prolific offender".  We need tougher sentencing.  If we get it and that means bigger prisons then Tory policy is good policy.