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Given the frayed and depleted state of the public sector, it is not surprising that prisons in England and Wales are struggling to escape from a sense of perpetual crisis. Recent days saw the latest in a series of urgent notifications. These put a prison in special measures, and require ministers to produce an action plan within a month. Inspectors found that Woodhill in Milton Keynes is unsafe while a report on another failing prison, Swaleside in Kent, pointed to high levels of violence, staff shortages and education cuts.
David Lammy, who was shuffled into the role of justice secretary as a result of Angela Rayner’s hasty exit from government, is busy with the alarming push to remove most defendants’ right to a jury trial. So the implementation of recent sentencing reforms, and problems inside jails, have largely been left to the prisons minister, James Timpson. While there is no doubting his personal commitment, good intentions will not be enough.
The first report from the reformed women’s justice board included some welcome proposals. One is that there should be a strong presumption against imprisoning pregnant women. But previous pledges to improve the way that mothers are treated have not been honoured. Earlier this month the Guardian reported scandalous details of women being shackled to guards while giving birth. While the women’s board has been compared to the youth justice body set up by New Labour, its role is advisory and it lacks the commissioning budget which was one of the youth board’s key features.
Lord Timpson also announced a big expansion of the use of electronic tags. The poor state of prisons, particularly the lack of education and work opportunities, means that supervising people in the community would be preferable in many cases. If done well, an overall rebalancing away from prisons and towards community punishment could be a big step forward. But tagging must not be mistaken for a cheap alternative to case work. The probation service has still not recovered from the disastrous cuts and failed privatisation inflicted on it under the Tories. It needs to invest in staff as well as devices. While the role of AI is sure to be talked up by tech companies trying to win contracts, rehabilitation relies on relationships. Electronic notifications are not a short cut.
The England and Wales prison population of 87,751 is close to the all-time record (Scotland hit its own record of 8,452 this month). But this is not because more people are being sent down. The total number of those jailed is around 15,000 lower than in 2010. The change is in the length of sentences, and the number of prisoners who are recalled after release. This is a problem which 20 years ago hardly existed.
Another issue, raised by the Prison Governors’ Association following the killing of Ian Huntley, is the difficulty of managing inmates on extremely long or whole-life tariffs who have “nothing to lose”. As well as self-harm incidents, which fell slightly last year, and violence between prisoners, there were a record 10,568 attacks on staff. This level of threat inevitably undermines morale and affects recruitment and retention. As the reforms in the sentencing act are phased in, the workforce must be closely monitored alongside the impact on prisoners and the public.
