What is wrong with the UK's Prison Service?

Even when a criminal is jailed for his crimes, and it seems to take a long time for the criminal courts to get to that stage, it seems that the Prison Service runs a less than tight ship. Here's a report from the BBC that I am quoting as I cannot find the Telegraph article, that I read in the paper on Sunday, online today.

A judge has criticised a prison for releasing a drugs baron on home leave 13 months into a six-year jail term.

Judge Peter Jacobs branded the situation a "farce" after Mohammed Rafiq, from Dudley in the West Midlands, failed to attend a hearing at Norwich Crown Court.

It emerged Rafiq, 35, had been sent home from prison for the weekend.

The judge asked Norwich Prison officials to explain the decision in court - but said he had been ignored.
Judge Jacobs said: "So far, nobody from the Prison Service has arrived. If they do arrive, I will hear what they have to say with interest."

He had expected the prison to bring the defendant to court on Thursday for a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Instead, it emerged that former taxi driver Rafiq had been allowed to return to his home for the weekend, 13 months into his sentence.

...

"I will want an explanation in public as to how a man serving a six-year sentence is allowed to go on home leave, despite the fact he is supposed to be here today.

...

Rafiq was part of a gang who ran a network of cannabis factories capable of producing drugs with a street value of about £1m each year.

He managed five cannabis farms in Norwich and several in the Midlands.

Rafiq is serving a six-year sentence after admitting conspiracy to supply controlled drugs in 2010.

He is currently held in Britannia House, the open resettlement unit at Norwich Prison.'

So sentenced to six years in prison Mr Rafiq is held in an 'open resettlement unit' and allowed home  for the weekend. Has any pretence that prisons should be for partly for punishment now been jettisoned? Sometimes the way this country operates its judicial system makes me feel sick.