Prisons: a window into the soul of a civilised society

The view through the window doesn’t look good. There are no votes in prisons and the conditions in which prisoners are held is deteriorating. And yet, our justice system and the way we treat offenders, often hidden from public view, is a crucial reflection of how civilised a society we are. And even for those who don’t care, better prisons mean less re-offending and genuine cost savings.

So where are we today? The prison estate is crumbling as real cuts bite to the bone. Add this to the list which includes social care, policing and local authority services generally. The pressures on prisons are exacerbated by rising numbers of prisoners, partly driven by the roundup of sexual offenders, harsher sentencing, so called ‘legal highs’ and falling prison officers.

A few facts from the Prison Reform Trust make startling reading. 68% of prisons are overcrowded with 21,000 prisoners still sharing cells for up to 23 hours a day. We have the highest imprisonment rate in Western Europe with 66,000 jailed in the year to June 2017. Yet 71% had committed a non-violent offence and 47% were sentenced to serve six months or less. Nearly 49% of adults are reconvicted within one year of release with an estimated cost to the economy of between £9.5-13 billion annually. Prison officers have fallen 23% in the last seven years whilst the prison population has risen. Assaults on staff across Britain’s 140 prisons rose by 143% in the last 4 years.

The latest report from HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales (and the people who fill this role are no soft touch) highlighted that the percentage of male prisoners held in good or reasonably good conditions has fallen from 78% to 49%. One could go on…

The solution partly lies in new prisons. They are being built but will have no impact on overcrowding until 2022 and, at the current rate of incarceration, a new programme will be needed from 2026. More prison officers are also required (a rapid recruitment drive is on after a realisation the fall in numbers has been disastrous but there is much further to go).

But what we really need to do is jail less people and of course review all those prisoners on shameful indeterminate sentences. Community sentencing is more effective than short prison terms at reducing reoffending, yet its use has nearly halved in the last decade. More of the former please.

Sorting out our jails and sentencing generally strengthens our society and at the same time actually saves money over the longer term. Of all the problems facing this country, this issue actually has identifiable solutions which can be implemented by even this current crop of politicians.