Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke challenges the view that "prison works" (Wantage and Didcot Liberal Democrats)

Wantage and Didcot Liberal Democrats <info@wantagelibdems.org.uk>

Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke challenges the view that "prison works"

July 1, 2010 12:12 PM

Prisons have become "colleges of crime" for many first-time offenders

Liberal Democrats have welcomed the Justice Secretary's assault on the 'prison works' orthodoxy espoused by former Tory home secretary Michael Howard. Lib Dem spokesman for Wantage and Didcot, Alan Armitage, said: "Stopping vast numbers of people being locked up for non-violent crimes on short sentences was a key Liberal Democrat manifesto commitment. The Labour Government liked to talk tough on crime while re-offending rates in this country rose sky-high. Short-term prison sentences don't reduce re-offending or cut crime.

"Liberal Democrats believe that criminals should be caught and punished, but they should also be set back on the straight and narrow. Prison places should be for violent criminals, not first time petty offenders. The coalition Government's decision to review the number of short sentences is a welcome first step to getting it right."

As reported in The Guardian, Kenneth Clarke launched a scathing attack on the "Victorian bang 'em up" prison culture of the past 20 years. He warned that simply "banging up more and more people for longer" is actually making some criminals worse without protecting the public. "In our worst prisons, it produces tougher criminals," Clarke said. "Many a man has gone into prison without a drug problem and come out drug dependent. And petty prisoners can meet up with some new hardened criminal friends."

Mr Clarke was last in charge of prisons when he was Home Secretary between 1992 and 1993, when the prison population in England and Wales stood at 44,628. He said that the current population of 85,000 is "an astonishing number which I would have dismissed as an impossible and ridiculous prediction if it had been put to me in a forecast in 1992. For as long as I can remember the political debate on law and order has been reduced to a competition over whether a government has spent more public money and locked up more people for longer than its predecessor. It now costs more to put someone in prison - £38,000 - than it does to send a boy to Eton."

Clarke pointed out that prison is the necessary punishment for many offenders, but questioned whether "ever more prison for ever more offenders" always produces better results for the public. He provided his own answer by observing that the record prison population and the crime rate in England and Wales are now among the highest in western Europe. He said that just locking people up without actively seeking to change them is "what you would expect of Victorian England" and notes that re-offending rates among the 60,000 prisoners given short sentences has reached 60% and rising.

"This does not surprise me. It is virtually impossible to do anything productive with offenders on short sentences. And many of them end up losing their jobs, their homes and their families during their short time inside," Clarke said.

Prime Minister David Cameron defended the proposals at prime minister's questions in the Commons yesterday. He said the government was having to clear up the "complete mess" in the criminal justice system left by Labour. He insisted "radical reform" was needed, and highlighted the cost of a prison place, as well as the "appalling" drugs problem in jails and high recidivism rates among ex-prisoners.

Clarke's speech marks a return to the language of former home secretary Douglas Hurd's 1991 white paper, which said prison "was an expensive way of making bad people worse" - and the prison population then stood at only 42,000.

Michael Howard, who was the Conservative Party Home Secretary responsible for the primacy of the approach that "prison works" has disagreed with Mr Clarke's point of view.

Coincidentally, the Scottish Parliament yesterday effectively abolished prison sentences of less than three months. The Liberal Democrats voted with the SNP government, with Conservatives voting against.