Is there a heaven and a hell?

I was in jail (no not as an inmate, they didn't catch me yet :) ) when the above question came up. I was there as part of an alpha team and we were having this discussion with the “guests” (captive audience :) ). It's not a question we talk a lot about on the outside, but prison (and the hard knocks of life) have a way of focusing the mind. My response was that if God exists and He is just, there has to be a heaven and a hell. I mean death is not good enough for the likes of Hitler, Bashar Al-Assad and a lot more (probably including myself!).

Someone voiced the opinion that Heaven and hell are here on earth. It seems to me that there is something in this, I mean if we remove all the bad out of life, it gives us a glimpse (probably a poor one) of what heaven is like, and if we remove all the good out of life we likely have a glimpse of hell. These can be uncomfortable thoughts, but for me there is comfort in the gospel which tells us that if we admit that we are wrong (easier to do in the pen) and turn our lives over to Him, there is forgiveness and provision for life in all its fullness in the here and now, and even fuller in the hereafter.