Crunch time for country's prisons
Government policy this year will determine whether UK prison system survives, experts warn
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Thursday, 29, Jan 2009 07:31
Government policy in 2009 will decide whether the country's prison system sinks or swims, it has been claimed.
With Britain embroiled in a recession, dire warnings over the complete collapse of the system have been sounded.
"The prison system is at a standstill, an achievement given the budget cuts and ever-worsening overcrowding, but a standstill nonetheless," Andrew Neilson, head of public affairs and policy at the Howard League for Penal Reform, told inthenews.co.uk.
"It is very uncertain whether the system can stave off collapse for another year when we are facing a deep recession."
Mr Neilson was responding to the annual report from HM chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers, which said the prison system was under "sustained and chronic pressure".
In the report, Dame Anne raises growing concerns over safety in young offender institutions; self-harm rates among women prisoners; prisons not complying with the Disability Discrimination Act; increased problems with alcohol abuse and the impact of the recession upon employment and resettlement rates.
She urges the government to avoid more legislation and to finally give up on massive, American-style Titan prisons, which are less safe and more likely to rely on force.
"These findings should underpin planning for the future of the prison estate," Dame Anne writes. "They reinforce concerns about Titan prisons."
"This is not a prison system able to perform at optimum level. At most, this year's outcomes give a breathing space, and an opportunity to learn lessons that can prevent prisons reaching a tipping point and sliding backwards."
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said the prison system was "living on borrowed time".
"Before it's too late Jack Straw needs to abandon his 'make do and mend' prison policy and instead break the vicious cycle of a rising prison population, ineffective rehabilitation in overcrowded prisons and sky high reoffending," she commented.
Ms Lyons explained that the £2.3 billion earmarked for prison building was "totally senseless"
"Everyone, apart from the government, accepts [Titan prisons] won't work and can only ever be a temporary solution if the root causes of the rising prison population continue to be ignored," she added.
In further comment, Mr Neilson said Titan prisons, already savaged in a public consultation, had "all the hallmarks of another expensive disaster".
"The government failed to sort out the criminal justice system when the money was there and now prisons will be left to pick up the pieces," he said.
"I fear this latest inspectorate report merely reflects the calm before the storm."