Prison Reform or Last Resort?
Last week the Justice Secretary announced a series of reforms to prisons that seek to improve public safety. Unfortunately these changes are not radical or enlightened ideas but are instead born out of the necessity imposed by a collapsing prison system.
The prison population is as high as it has ever been but the infrastructure is crumbling and staff shortages are making life more difficult for those who remain. All of the so-called reforms announced by Alex Chalk have been in the name of public safety but this is a desperate attempt to cover whatever dignity remains after years of underfunding by this Conservative government:
Releasing lower level offenders
Establishing temporary accommodation in prison yards
Utilising beds in police stations
Deporting foreign criminals
Increased community sentences
Ironically this forced liberalisation of the prison system may bring some unintended benefits. Simon Jenkins, writing in The Guardian, notes that this may cause a decline in recidivism and that criminals may get better help for addiction and mental health issues on the outside of prison walls.
This is likely true. Short prison sentences often do more harm than good and can lead to years of re-offending. Combined with an approach where an increasingly desperate government has wanted to appear ‘tough on crime’ this has been a recipe for disaster that has certainly contributed towards our current state.
Jenkins has a point but forgets about the law of unintended consequences. The benefits that we might happen to see do not resolve the fundamental issues with prisons in this country. They do not improve the situation for those who will remain in custody and sentencing instructions for judges mean that any temporary reduction in the total prison population will be short-lived.
The attempts to plaster over the gaps in the system are failing and these new reforms are little more than an admission from the Tories that they have given up entirely. Until prisons are properly funded with a view to the interconnectedness of the justice system there is not much hope for those who end up behind bars.
This week on the podcast a case about VAT invites the Supreme Court to revisit an old decision from the Court of Appeal.
Episode link: https://uklawweekly.com/2023-uksc-35/
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Marcus