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A clean (jail) break?

Fri Jul 03 11:41AM

Cherie Booth's Commission on English Prisons Today has come riding to the rescue of England's fit-to-burst places of correction. A shame it's not clear whether the politicians are listening.

By Alex Stevenson

Yesterday's report is the result of two years' hard labour (pardon the pun. Sorry, pardon that pun too). It proposes a radical reduction in the number of prison places and the closure of several prison establishments, shifting the emphasis to local preventive measures.

Is this so radical? Its commissioners think not. "It's perfectly possible to have less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison," chairman Professor David Wilson explained at today's report launch.

Accepting that's the case is actually quite easy to do. Crime levels have declined by 43 per cent, Ms Booth, claims, but prison numbers have shot up. Before the sudden rise in the prison population in 1993 there were only 42,000 inmates. Now we're close to double that level. Something's got to give.

For politicians acceptance is much harder, however. They are constantly under pressure to be harder, stricter, less compromising. That may be why today's report has tried to present a way out of this dead end.

"This is not a counsel of despair, this is a very positive report," Ms Booth told politics.co.uk. By spending public money "more wisely" the community can be made safer. "That's a win-win situation," she said.

Her upbeat approach offers a dramatic way out. If the choice is between continuing with business as usual and making a clean break, it's clear which presents a bolder option for policymakers.

This is why it may have been an error to duck out of providing any specific targets. The broad-brush approach, providing principles, was the result of a deliberate "tactical" ploy. Not all those present at the report approved, fearing it might undermine rather than enhance its effectiveness.

"There's a real danger in getting fixated with numbers," Ms Booth lamented, while Professor Ian Loader of Oxford University, a fellow commissioner, insisted a tactical mistake had yet to be made. "It's possible we might have done," he conceded.

A similar lack of specificity was present in the answer to the question from politics.co.uk, on the length of the "long-term" transition required.

"There are some things we could do pretty quickly," Ms Booth said. She is a woman in a hurry: "The question we have to deal with is happening now, and so the solution has to start happening now."

Prof Loader talked of the need for "political leadership" on these issues. Perhaps more experienced in the Westminster world herself, Ms Booth said a "political consensus" existed.

Was this a fair reflection of the commitment on show? Prisons minister Maria Eagle and her shadow counterpart, Edward Garnier, attended the report's launch. Their remarks were equally guarded, equally non-committal, demonstrating precisely the sort of equivocation not desired by Ms Booth and co.

Ms Eagle said the report was "very interesting". It would provoke "some lovely and ongoing discussions". Yes, minister. Her emphasis was especially telling. "We do have to have enough prison places for those people sent into custody," she said, at her most firmest. At least the commissioners can be encouraged she had made time in her "ridiculous diary" for the report launch.

Mr Garner was politer, but equally cautious. He said the report "makes some entirely worthwhile... recommendations".

"This is a document that should be open on every policymaker's desk, and not left on the shelf," he beamed. Take it or leave it.

Ms Booth, smiling courteously as they delivered their somewhat meaningless platitudes, knows that something must be done.

It must be the politicians who do it; there's only so much the wife of a former prime minister can do. But at least a radical solution is now on the table.

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People who murder with intent, like Myra Hindley, where no doubt of their guilt is fact, should be executed, this would release a lot of space, save money. Minor offences should be given community work to pay back and learn from their mistakes. The whole system of the crime and relevant punishment needs reassessing, with the type of crime ensuring justice for those affected. The case of Hannah recently highlighted on tv should ensure the man responsible and knowingly of his actions and crime, should be punished by execution - it serve no purpose to allow people of this kind to 'life' when they have taken another's in such a callous manner and the parent's deserve that, otherwise its a mockery and predators know, if they are caught they can get away by one means or another. Cases where murder has taken place and lawyers state the predator is not capable to be tried, should not be allow, if its is 100% known they are the murder. We need to tighten up the laws on crimes to befit the punishment. Softly softly approach has not worked, is no deterrant to predators or criminals if they can get away with it, serve part sentence and be released, often to do it again, another innocent life is then taken.

From valwatson8 on Tue Jul 07 11:59AM
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As multiculture rises ,so does the prison population, if the Indigenous people who worked hard,sweated and gave blood for their country goes below 50%, then this country will become a banana republic.

From kuide8888 on Tue Jul 07 12:57PM
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Those of you who work in prisons, you do not need to do so to be able to express a valid opinion!!!
Guess what - I work in a prison!!!
Shocker.
And I agree with the general comments on here. Foreign Nationals: deportation. *More* jails. Fewer luxuries and more cells to hold more prisoners.
Also, yes, other methods of punishment should be looked at. Hard labour. ASBOs do not work.
£60/week???? What??? That is so demeaning for people on the outside (like my university educated father) who are struggling to find jobs.

From bgy3jlh on Tue Jul 07 01:16PM
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"Crime levels have declined by 43 per cent, Ms Booth, claims, but prison numbers have shot up."
Has anyone considered that one might well be the result of the other? Perhaps it should have been put the other way round i.e. Prison numbers have shot up with the result that crime levels have declined by 43%.

From steve_r_kershaw on Tue Jul 07 03:16PM
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Maybe one answer to the prison population would be if the sentence given was the sentence served as a minimum for good behavior. Bad behavior meant a longer sentence,and no priviledges, then perhaps we would have a deterent.

From sandy.cameron on Tue Jul 07 03:50PM
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to JMBIZ...oh how I agree with you...I've thought that would be a solution for many years...Instead of the hot conditions the South prison [USA] doles out...on the west coast of a remote Scottish island would be the exact opposite..Supply them with materials for building their own accomodation..the facilities to grow their own food.. and leave them to it..some of the most westerly isles can only be reach by helicopters...so they wouldnj't be able to escape.... Hardened prisoners... murderers. child molesters. child rapists..don't deserve to breathe the same air as the rest of the population..sooo the air on the Atlantic coast wouldn't get contaminated....To say that they didn't know what they were doing..is ludicrous...and it's the law [and lawyers] that's made a mockery of the penal system...do-gooders like Cherie Blair and her cronies.. that want to have the 'feel-good' factor...keeps her in the limelight...and earns her very nice salary [thank you very much] has she been in the position of identifying a son or daughter who died from rape or murder?? has she been in the position of fighting for her life from a vicious knife attack ??? She goes around her daily business with the knowledge she'll be 'safe' because of her high profile position... What can the feeling of parents or loved ones be..when they see or hear of the criminals being treated like 'victims' because of over crowding in prisons...having to 'slop out' [poor things] and all the other 'degrading things' they have to 'suffer'???? Then read about the 'perks' and concessions they're allowed...access to the internet..studying for unversity courses...have visits from wives or sweethearts because it's 'inhuman' to prevent them from having conjugal rights...[that really makes my blood boil].. People do make genuine mistakes or bad errors in judgement but that doesn't warrant being put 'inside' and yes they have to make amends for their mistakes... but when the sentencing is governed by the overcrowding in jails [so lighter terms in prison] that is the last straw...I know of pensioners who are treated worse than prisoners... they don't have three square meals a day...they have to pay for electric..gas...water...rent/mortgage and all the other amenities from their megre pensions...and most of them have contributed to society..paid their taxes which goes to pay to keep the prisoners very nicely- [thank you very much] at so many thousands a week I believe...SO something has to be done by this government STOP being soft...let the criminals of other countries take responsibility for their own...we have enough in UK to contend with....It used to be Great Britian...they should change that to Gullible Britain. or Grovelling Britain... UK should mean United Kingdom....now its Unrecognisable Kingdom...as we seem to have to answer to our 'masters' in the EU....Most of our laws have to be ratified by them...and any laws they pass we have to obey...whether it's in our interests or not....whether we like it or not.... So as long as it stays the Status Quo..prisoners will live a care free life while the rest of us work hard...to keep them in the luxury they've become accustomed to..and when they don't like it...they can ask to be transferred to somewhere more to their liking...and....because of their 'human rights' [that's a laugh as some of them I wouldn't call human] we have to make their lives more comfortable...

From jmcmillan007 on Thu Jul 09 02:25PM
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