Looking Differently at Prisons
The new year is often as good a time as any for a fresh start and nowhere is that more true than within the prison system of England and Wales.
A recent report by The Independent highlighted that thousands of prisoners are being released with tents and sleeping bags because of a seemingly unavoidable vicious cycle. Offenders leave jail and return to living on the street, they then commit further offences and end up back inside prison walls. This often continues for months and years.
Funding crises within the prison and probation services means that there is little to no housing support for the, on average, 600 prisoners a month who exchange a prison cell for life on the streets.
Instead of helping to resolve this problem, the government is instead making it worse by urgently bringing forward release dates to solve an overcrowding problem in the deteriorating prisons of England and Wales. This is pushing more offenders onto the streets where the lack of a stable address can make prison recalls for breach of licence conditions more likely.
Theoretically the government is trying to address this so-called cycle of ‘cell, street, repeat’ via a new scheme, launched in November, that ensures prisoners released on probation are at least given 12 weeks of accommodation.
This is said to be having some positive impact but, as The Independent reports, between July 2021 and March 2023 more than 11,000 prisoners were released to homelessness and 11,000 more had an “unknown” housing situation. That is around 20% of the released prison population during that period.
With that in mind, it is not surprising that Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons in England and Wales, told the BBC that the prison system needed a “fundamental reorientation”.
Much greater focus, according to Taylor, must be placed on education, training, and rehabilitation as many prisoners end up reoffending and do not learn even basic skills like literacy and numeracy while inside.
Taylor is right but the problem in the prison and probation system extends far beyond the quality of training that prisoners are receiving. While that does need to be addressed and a reorientation would be welcome, these issues stem from a policy level and the outcomes we see have trickled down following years and years of failures.
Prisons themselves are antiquated and falling apart, staff shortages stem from positions being stressful and underpaid, and illegal drugs are rife. Add to this the homelessness problem reported on by The Independent and it is no surprise that the entire system is being pushed past breaking point.
The vicious cycle is much more than ‘cell, street, repeat’. Prisons are seen by the government as dumping grounds for those unwanted within society, so prisoners are given no chance to develop meaningful skills for the real world. That lack of skills and support means more and more offenders are being released onto the streets where government policies demonise homelessness instead of treating it as the social issue that it is. As the merry-go-round continues, jails become more and more overcrowded.
A fundamental reorientation is needed but can only start with fresh policy ideas and better funding.
This week on the podcast, an immigration case prompts a fresh look at the Immigration Rules. How much reliance should be placed on judges to provide an interpretation when the drafting by government lawyers leaves a lot to be desired.
Episode link: http://uklawweekly.com/2023-uksc-46/
Make a difference today,
Marcus