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The Guardian view on prisons in England and Wales: dangerous and inefficient The Guardian view on prisons in England and Wales: dangerous and inefficient
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The last report – absolutely the last – from Nick Hardwick, who has not had his contract renewed as chief inspector of prisons in England and Wales, reveals a national scandal. Taking up his job in 2010 just as Ken Clarke, the first Conservative justice secretary, promised a rehabilitation revolution, Mr Hardwick has charted not a revolution but an inexorable decline in all the indicators by which healthy prisons are measured. Attacks by prisoners on each other and on prison officers are up, deaths in prison up, suicides up, serious assaults up, overcrowding up. About the only things that are falling are the number of prison officers and the amount of purposeful activity done by prisoners. This is no way to run a prison service, and the people who work in it know that. If the new justice secretary, Michael Gove, is as interested in reform as he has indicated, here surely is the place to start.The last report – absolutely the last – from Nick Hardwick, who has not had his contract renewed as chief inspector of prisons in England and Wales, reveals a national scandal. Taking up his job in 2010 just as Ken Clarke, the first Conservative justice secretary, promised a rehabilitation revolution, Mr Hardwick has charted not a revolution but an inexorable decline in all the indicators by which healthy prisons are measured. Attacks by prisoners on each other and on prison officers are up, deaths in prison up, suicides up, serious assaults up, overcrowding up. About the only things that are falling are the number of prison officers and the amount of purposeful activity done by prisoners. This is no way to run a prison service, and the people who work in it know that. If the new justice secretary, Michael Gove, is as interested in reform as he has indicated, here surely is the place to start.
On Monday, Mr Gove announced that not only can prisoners after all receive books from family and friends following the high court ruling against a ban imposed by his predecessor Chris Grayling, but they could keep up to 12 in their cell. Mr Gove said his decision was influenced by the US conservative social policy guru Arthur Brooks, of the American Enterprise Institute thinktank. In a refreshing change from the usual language of punishment, he quoted Mr Brooks’ view that all human beings should be seen as assets, not liabilities. Other voices from the American right are said to be influencing Mr Gove. One libertarian thinktank, Right on Crime, argues against long prison sentences and in favour of innovative rehabilitation solutions in the name of efficiency and cost-effectiveness. It highlights success stories such as a Texas partnership between local employers and prisoners due for release, and another scheme that automatically closes public access to juvenile criminal records, making it more likely that they find work. Reform in the US has been driven by the soaring cost of prisons in a country where more people are locked up than anywhere else on Earth. States such as California, Texas and New York have all cut prison numbers and spending without a corresponding increase in crime. On Monday, Mr Gove announced that not only can prisoners after all receive books from family and friends following the high court ruling against a ban imposed by his predecessor Chris Grayling, but they could keep up to 12 in their cell. Mr Gove said his decision was influenced by the US conservative social policy guru Arthur Brooks, of the American Enterprise Institute thinktank. In a refreshing change from the usual language of punishment, he quoted Mr Brooks’ view that all human beings should be seen as assets, not liabilities. Other voices from the American right are said to be influencing Mr Gove. One libertarian thinktank, Right on Crime, argues against long prison sentences and in favour of innovative rehabilitation solutions in the name of efficiency and cost-effectiveness. It highlights success stories such as a Texas partnership between local employers and prisoners due for release, and another scheme that automatically closes public access to juvenile criminal records, making it more likely that they find work. Reform in the US has been driven by the soaring cost of prisons in a country where more people are locked up than anywhere else on Earth. States such as California, Texas and New York have all cut prison numbers and spending without a corresponding increase in crime.
Mr Gove is also faced with a tight and shrinking budget. He could carry on with a system that is unsafe and inefficient. Or he could set penal policy on a new trajectory. On Wednesday he gives evidence to MPs on the justice committee; on Friday he is making what is billed as a major speech on prisons. He has already confirmed that the secure college for 320 young offenders that Mr Grayling wanted to build will not go ahead. Now he should abandon the Grayling plans for a supersize prison in Wrexham, a model that has been condemned by reformers. That would show he was in earnest. Related: Time for radical action on our failing prisons | Letters
Mr Gove is also faced with a tight and shrinking budget. He could carry on with a system that is unsafe and inefficient. Or he could set penal policy on a new trajectory. On Wednesday he gives evidence to MPs on the justice committee; on Friday he is making what is billed as a major speech on prisons. He has already confirmed that the secure college for 320 young offenders that Mr Grayling wanted to build will not go ahead. Now he should abandon the Grayling plans for a supersize prison in Wrexham, a model that has been condemned by reformers. That would show he was in earnest.