The Howard League for Penal Reform’s commission on English prisons reports today. The prisons commission was asked to think radically about the purpose and limits of a penal system and how it should sit alongside other social policy strategies.
I’ve cared passionately about this since Nick Davies’ investigation into the criminal justice system – the most inspiring piece of journalism I’ve ever read.
Cherie Booth QC is the commission’s President and leading criminologist Professor David Wilson is the Chair, so they really do know what they are talking about. Significantly, it’s not just the great and the good but a former prisoner also sits on the commission.
Prison reform should be addressed urgently. Prison is not working. It is too expensive. Too many prisoners reoffend. Too few victims are protected. Too many lives are ruined by short term prison sentences. Too many families are torn apart by the location of prisoners, which means that there are insufficient support networks for prisoners on release.
There are too many mentally ill people are drug addicts in prison. There are too many former servicemen and women in prison. There are too many children in prison.
It’s the background of the prison system that makes the case for reform so compelling:
- In August 2008, the prison population in England and Wales soared to a record high of 83,810. In May 1997 the prison population was 60,131.
- The average prison population in France last year was 56,279. German, with over 20 million more people, had an average prison population of 73,203
- England and Wales lock up more prisoners per head of population than other countries in Western Europe apart from Spain (160) and Luxembourg (155)
- It costs an average of £40,992 a year to keep a person in prison in England and Wales.
- In 2007-8 the criminal justice system in England and Wales received £22.7 billion, over a third more in real terms than it received ten years ago. The UK is now spending a greater proportion of its gross domestic product on law and order than any other country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
- Over one third of men serving prison sentences had a significant mental health problem, nearly one in ten had experienced psychosis and one in four had attempted suicide in prison. Over 75% of men on remand and nearly two thirds of male prisons met the diagnosis of having a personality disorder.
And yet governnent policy appears to be pointed in completely the wrong direction. In the last 12 years we’ve had a criminal justice act every single year. It’s costing more than ever before. More are in prison than ever before. There are more violent crimes than ever before. Crime appears to be rising again.
Yet there are too few incentives for government to get it right. Prisoners and their families do not have a voice in society. The victims rarely have a voice. Those in the ‘hang em and flog em’ brigade never have their fears and prejudices confronted and challenged. Their voice is undimmed. Prison reform will only become a political priority when enough people say we’ve had enough. Have you?
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Tags: prison reform
As a howardleaguer I’m bound to agree but yr absolutely right about that Nick Davies investigation – I doubt there’s a better guide to the background of the mess we’re in
maybe we should put it in the induction packs for new staff…………