On overcrowding

by Mark Rowe

Our regular contributor Jim Gannon turns to prisons.

Liz Truss the new Justice Secretary has warned there are no quick fix solutions to deal with our prisons and the problems overcrowding brings. With the prison population reaching over 85,000 when the optimum current cell capacity is nearer 75,000 you can begin to understand the effect this has on our criminal courts system and our law enforcement agencies.

Summing up
Whilst the security industry is only too aware of the impact the shortfall in our policing system has on them, we probably have no real idea what is happening in our prisons. The context of the speech given by the Justice Secretary in February basically spelled it out. The prisons in England and Wales are violent, overcrowded, under-staffed and are failing to cut re-offending through rehabilitation. Assaults on staff are rising and morale among prison officers is low. Drug abuse, mainly with the so called legal highs smuggled into prisons is rife. Prisoner suicides and inmate disturbances seem to be commonplace. Prisons are in fact full to bursting and this will only lead to increased violence, more criminality, and more drug abuse if the government do not get to grips with the existing problems including overcrowding.

Early intervention
The recent disturbances in four prisons prompted former Home Secretaries Kenneth Clarke and Jacqui Smith to call for drastic cuts in the prison population. The Justice Secretary quickly rejected this on the basis that reductions by cap or quota, or by making sentencing cuts are not magic bullet solutions just simply a dangerous attempt at a quick fix. Some blame the present predicament on Chris Grayling the Justice Minister during the 2010 Coalition government as he drove sweeping changes in the criminal justice system in general. Some of course was needed but there are those who say he is responsible for what is ailing in our current prison system. Liz Truss wants to focus on measures such as tougher community sentencing as a positive way of reducing the numbers entering our prisons as first time inmates. Evidence shows that 45pc of ex-prisoners reoffend within 12 months of their release and for the under 18s this figure rises to a staggering 68 per cent. Her reforms to the criminal justice system are driven by an early intervention policy as she believes that the current prison population should be cut by early intervention on drink and drug addiction which are high on the list of causes of re-offending. She maintains that if there were tougher conditions imposed and attached to community sentences things would look a lot different. She calls for the prison and probation service to do far more to help offenders turn away from a life of crime.

Underfunding
The root cause of most of the problems associated with our police, prison, probation and social services is of course funding and while the best intentions are put forward as solutions, they go nowhere unless adequate funds are available. Some of the figures in the public domain show the size of the problem facing those responsible for delivering the solutions with decreasing funding. The biggest driver for prison growth in the last two decades has been the pursuit and punishment of sexual offenders, crimes of violence and domestic abuse. All the figures point in one direction and the overcrowding of prisons is the result. Old and inadequate Victorian prisons have to be replaced with prisons fit for purpose, not only for now but for the decades to come.

Reform plans
No one should doubt the stakes are high and a fundamental shift in the way our prisons are funded is needed. Prisons house disproportionally high numbers of people in poor health, with addictions and mental problems. Young offenders have their own problems; least of all seems to be gainful employment upon their release as they already know the answer. Having fewer officers in prisons means that prisoners spend longer hours locked up, less time on training and in turn reduced time being prepared for life on the outside. New proposals include a strategic policy to give prison governors greater autonomy over the way they organise and run their own prisons especially in education, rehabilitation and work. We should not under-estimate the task ahead as there seems more problems than answers. She is not helped by increasing numbers of inmates entering the system. As prisoners spend a significant part of their day locked in their cell and some say too long, there are proposals now being put forward to change the way cells are being set up so that activities can be organised within the cell.

No quick fix
Decades of underfunding has got us to where we are and while it is relatively easy to get absorbed into the blame culture, one cannot ignore the facts and the alarming data available indicating that the time has come to find a solution to the overcrowding and the issues leading to and from this. More money needs to be spent on intervention policies to prevent offenders, especially young offenders, from entering prison because once they get on that route the chances of a turnaround in lifestyle look slim. This is where social services and the probation service can play a major part. It is going to be an uphill battle to make a difference but Liz Truss seems to have the appetite for change.

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