Prison sentences 'not the answer'
Prison sentences 'not the answer'
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Thursday, 14, Jan 2010 12:10
By Richard James.
A group of influential MPs has strongly criticised the government's criminal justice system, claiming the policy of building more and more prisons is "not the answer".
The latest report by the Commons justice committee declares the justice system is facing a "crisis of sustainability" if resources continue to be absorbed by an ever-expanding programme of prison building rather than on preventing crimes from being committed.
The MPs claim adding to a penal system already at full capacity is not effective answer and instead call for a fundamental change in the way the government tackles crime and deals with re-offending.
At the end of last week the prison population of England and Wales stood at 82,653.
The committee points to the fact an average prison place costs £41,000 a year (plus further capital costs and health and education expenditure on top), with the government's new prisons costing - on current estimates - up to £4.2 billion over the next 35 years.
On current predictions, by 2014 the UK will have the highest incarceration rate in western Europe.
In a statement accompanying the new report, MPs state: "HM prisons are seriously over-crowded - reducing the good rehabilitation work that can take place inside - but reducing the need for places is the answer; not increasing the supply of cells."
The focus should instead be moved away from incarceration and towards rehabilitation and prevention, they suggest.
As opposed to building even more prison cells, the money should instead be invested in community programmes and local education, health and drug projects. The committee claims that at present, many programmes aimed at tackling anti-social problems, such alcohol misuse and mental ill-health, are "chronically under-funded".
Commenting on the report's findings, Liberal Democrat MP Sir Alan Beith, chairman of the committee, said: "Whoever forms the next government, they face a choice between unsustainable 'business-as-usual' in the criminal justice system, and making some radical decisions.
"With pressure on all areas of public spending, the costs of the current 'predict and provide' approach to prison places simply cannot continue to be met. It is the responsibility of governments and parliament to protect citizens from crime by using the taxes they pay as effectively as possible; and that is not what is happening.
"A demand-led policy of building ever more prison places is being fuelled by political and media pressure for more and longer custodial sentences, diverting resources away from measures which are more likely to prevent future crime. Prisons are needed, and some very dangerous people need to be locked up for a very long time, but prison is no answer, for example, to persistent crime driven by addiction."
Sir Alan added the seriousness of a crime should not be measured by the length of a prison sentence, but whether the sentence handed down prevents further crime and enables restitution to be made to the victim and to society.
"Instead of sinking endless resources into prisons, it is time to make tough choices and reinvest in other parts of the criminal justice system, and, equally importantly, invest in a range of community and public services outside the system that can do most to cut crime," he added.
Alun Michael, a senior Labour member of the committee, also expressed how important he believed the committee's conclusions to be.
"In my view this is the most important piece of work that the justice select committee has ever undertaken because it goes to the heart of what is needed from our criminal justice system; the system as a whole and every agency or department within it must have a clear focus on reducing offending and re-offending in the interests of the public, victims and society as a whole," he said.
There has been considerable support for the committee's findings from campaign groups as well, with the Howard League of Penal Reform describing it as "excellent".
Juliet Lyon from the Prison Reform Trust also welcomed the committee's call for an end to the national addiction to imprisonment.
"The report reveals the unsustainable economic and social price of almost doubling our prison population in twenty years," she said.
"With a general election weeks away and close attention on value for money and effectiveness in public services, this report provides a blueprint for reform of the criminal justice system and builds a vital bridge between social, health and justice policy. Prison should no longer be treated as a free good and must be used sparingly. It is time to cap the prison population at its current level, while existing resources are diverted to more effective means of reducing crime in communities.
"The expensive and counter-productive 'arms race' on being tough on crime belongs to a different era and, as this report shows, the prison population can be safely reduced by one third in the next few years."