The Tories have naturally jumped on the bandwagon, attacking Reid as "lackadaisical and slow to act".  There was some confusion before the Tory announcement, as someone was unsure as whether `lackadaisical' was spelt correctly.  After consulting the "cleverest man in politics," one Rt Hon Dr. O. Letwin, they agreed it was spelt with one L.

Of course we know the Tories have a point, but not for the reason they think they do.  At the recent Tory Conference, Shadow Home Secretary and perennial loser David Davis, promised a salivating audience "more prisons," but didn't offer any clues as to how such an undertaking would be funded.  Prison building is an expensive business y'know?

The current crisis has been bubbling up for some time.  For the last couple of years the Home Office has been warned that prisons are nearing meltdown, and that if judges continue to give custodial sentences for relatively minor offences, then a tipping point would be around the corner.  Well, we have turned that corner and we have tipped sure enough.

For some time officials have been shuttling prisoners between prisons to ease the congestion, and now with numbers almost reaching the bright red 80,000 mark, such logistical manoeuvres are no longer enough.  A former category C prison official told this blog, "There are some people in prison who don't need to be there, maybe they need some sort of help, rather than banging them up for minor offences."  He went on, "it was near breaking point when I was there [2 years ago], and the government knew it."  The official told me that incidences of attempted escapes had reduced when razor wire was introduced at his prison, yet because resources were stretched, incidents had begun to creep up again, and, "it wasn't those who were in for not paying their council taxes who were prone to escaping."  Scary.

But ultimately it is the government's nervousness of upsetting the rightwing press that really drives their policy.  Rather than spending money on tackling criminality at source, treating the causes of social breakdown, our supposedly progressive government likes to bang minor criminals in jail, in line with the worst dog-whistle Tory policies. Clearly, as Philip Stephens' outlines in today's FT, here (subs required), increasing the numbers of people behind bars does not increase the likelihood, as Michael Howard argued, that "prison works." From Stephen's article:

The snag is that prison is not working. The government's argument, conveniently, fits the prejudices of the tabloids: Mr Blair will never get a bad headline for sending more people to jail. But it also twists the unassailable case that society must be protected from violent and determined criminals into one that pretends that filling the prisons to overflowing is the way to combat crime. The hard evidence, inconveniently, says otherwise.

Since 1997 the numbers in prison have risen from 60,000 to a record 80,000. On present trends the figure will climb still faster to reach 100,000 within six years or so. It might be thought that this reflects a criminal justice system that has become more effective in catching and convicting society's miscreants. In reality, the numbers sentenced by the courts have remained remarkably stable.

What has happened is that these people are being treated more harshly. At the government's behest, courts have been handing out more custodial sentences for petty offences and applying longer sentences for more serious crimes. The consequent overcrowding has destroyed any pretence that, alongside punishment and immediate protection for the public, prison should safeguard society by rehabilitating offenders.

The effect of incarcerating minor offenders and abandoning serious efforts at rehabilitation has been to make it more likely that they will become repeat offenders. Fifteen years ago a little above 50 per cent of those leaving prison committed new crimes within two years. The proportion now is nearly 70 per cent.

Now that is scary.

Charles Bushell, the leader of the Prison Governors' Association, raised an interesting point on the Guardians' Daily newsdesk podcast today, when he said that prison numbers had doubled since the Tories introduced private enterprise into the prison system.    Could it be that introducing the concept of profits into our prisons has driven up the number of custodial sentences, and therefore the demand for said services?  Hmmmm.  It just so happens, that the only other country with a comparable rocketing prison population, is the only country with a similar level of private enterprise within its system:  namely, The United States.

Bushell spoke to the BBC last week and asked, "We have reached bursting point. Anybody who says we should build more prisons needs to say how many and where the money is going to come from?"  Well David Davis, we're waiting?

From tygerland.net