Govt cuts to prison system are criminal

Savage cuts and evidence-free policy-making has left the prison system in a dreadful state. Since May 2010 prison officer numbers have fallen by almost 40 per cent and 18 jails have been closed or partially closed, yet the number of people in prison has risen. We now have more overcrowded and understaffed prisons than ever before and it makes us all less safe.

Overcrowding and a lack of staff mean that the prison system can neither reduce reoffending nor detain prisoners safely. Numbers of deaths by suicide have increased by 37 per cent in two years. Incidents of self-injury continue to rise. Serious violence against prisoners and staff is at an all-time high.

Prisons do not have the resources to do anything but warehouse the people inside them. Men routinely spend over 20 hours a day locked up in a cell designed for one but housing two. These cells contain a bunk-bed, a chair and an open toilet. If prisoners are lucky enough to have one of the few prison jobs they will often miss work as there are simply not enough staff to unlock their doors. The Howard League is aware of one prison, housing young adults, which has been running a ‘temporary restricted regime’ for over 18 months.

A huge amount of money has been wasted slashing prison staff numbers to dangerous levels, and now even more is being spent trying to re-recruit those who were made redundant. The Ministry of Justice was warned the cuts were unsustainable, but wouldn’t listen until things fell apart. Unsurprisingly, very few former prison officers are willing to come back to work in our failing prisons – only 60 have agreed to join the reserve force so far.

Whoever wins the next election, more cuts are heading the Ministry of Justice’s way. We are unlikely to hear about it much during the campaign, yet any incoming government must recognise that prison places are not a free good but a resource-intensive response with limits to what it can do. In healthcare, we wouldn’t fill intensive carebeds with people who can be treated in the community, but institutional responses remain the default option in penal policy. As money at the Ministry of Justice becomes increasingly scarce, this parlous situation cannot stand.

The most frustrating part of all this is that both the prison budget and crime can be cut if the right changes are made. Huge numbers of people currently in prison do not need to be there. The 60,000 people a year sent to prison to serve short sentences of less than 12 months should be sentenced to community sentences instead. They cost a fraction of a prison place and are much more successful at reducing reoffending. Instead we are left with a prison system bursting at the seams doing nothing but creating more crime.

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