cramming more people into prison has created a system that is prohibitively expensive and...

7/21/2019 Cramming More People Into Prison Has Created a System That is Prohibitively Expensive and Dangerously Ineffec…

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“Cramming more people into prison has created a system that

is prohibitively expensive and dangerously inefective. It is time

to re-think our penal policy”

How valid is this claim in relation to penal policy in the UK?

There are currently just fewer than 8,000 prisoners currently in Scottish Prisons,

whereas in n!land and "ales there are currently 8#,#$% prisoners in &oth

prisons and youn! o'ender(s institutes )as of *0 th +e&ruary *0#, accordin! to

prison reform !roup Howard -ea!ue./ This in e'ect means that the United

Kin!dom has one of the hi!hest rates of incarceration in "estern urope and has

lead to the pro&lem of overcrowdin!/ +or n!land and "ales the erti1ed 2ormal

3ccommodation )23. level is currently at %$,456 which are o&viously much

lower than what the actual num&er is/ The 7noc7 o e'ect of this overcrowdin!

pro&lem is tremendous as it a'ects &oth the e'ectiveness of the prisons

themselves and how well the reha&ilitation pro!rammes can wor7 not to

mention the increased 1nancial aspect of all the e9tra prisoners that need to &e

processed/ "ith the four main aims of prisons in !eneral &ein! justice,

incapacitation, deterrence and reha&ilitation, it is clear that with an overcrowdin!

prison service it will &ecome detrimental to how well the system wor7s to an

e9tent/ Therefore, is it time that we re:thin7 our current penal policy and

introduce alternatives methods on dealin! with o'enders?

;efore we can successfully e9amine the alternatives to help ease the clear

overcrowdin! pro&lem, we must 1rst loo7 at why overcrowdin! is such a pro&lem

in the 1rst place/ "hen there are too many prisoners to deal with, this can leadto <uite chaotic and violent conditions/ This in e'ect means that o=cers will

have a more di=cult time tryin! to control the pro&lem of dru! a&use as well as

acts of violence &etween prisoners/ +ormer repeat o'ender 3llan "eaver , while

promotin! his documentary >The oad from rime@ was <uoted to have said

durin! his trip to HA ;arlinnie “Within this very prison, I learned ho to make a

eapon !rom a ra"or blade and toothbrush# I as told ho to break into speci$c

cars# I as shon ho to dismantle basic shop alarms.” This !ives us an idea of

the atmosphere that e9ists within prison walls and if there is a surplus of

prisoners then clearly this atmosphere will only thrive/ +or e9ample, the Howard

-ea!ue for Penal eform found that in *0*, more than 00 violent incidentswere recorded within n!land and "ales this once a!ain showin! that

overcrowdin! is a pro&lem which is facin! prisons on &oth sides of the Scottish

&order/ +urthermore, overcrowdin! will limit the amount of prisoners who can

ta7e part in reha&ilitation pro!rammes as there simply will not &e enou!h space

for them/ urrent hief Bnspector of Prisons Cavid Stran! DPA stated in his

*05E*06 inspectors report “%mpty orksheds resulting !rom too !e &uali$ed

instructors represent a disappointing level o! asted opportunities”. This

statement from Ar/ Stran! helps solidify the opinion that overcrowdin! will lead

to less reha&ilitation opportunities/ Bn addition to this, the fact that it will ta7e

over F50,000 of pu&lic money )accordin! to the Prison eform Trust. to process aprisoner also creates an economic pro&lem/ However havin! said this, it is a



dou&le ed!ed sword in terms of penal policy, as overcrowdin! has stemmed from

!overnment policy &ut at the same time the lac7 of <uali1ed instructors li7ely will

have stemmed from the unprecedented cuts to the Ainistry of Gustice &ud!et,

due to total F*/6 &illion &y *0#:$, which are creatin! a race to the &ottom in

prison conditions and the warehousin! of people in super:sied jails, accordin! to

the Prison eform Trust(s new report 'rison( the !acts. To summarise, it is clear

that current penal policy has indeed led to the overcrowdin! of prisons and the

cost of processin! a prisoner is simply too much in today(s day and a!e of

e9treme &ud!et cuts to all aspects of the pu&lic sector/ The need is there for

there to &e alternative, cheaper methods to help reha&ilitate these prisoners

while at the same time ease the pro&lem of overcrowdin! so what are the

options the !overnment are su!!estin!?

Traditionally spea7in!, the view has always &een that the onservative Party has

&een the party of swift law and order, whereas in contrast the -a&our party has

&een more sympathetic to the causes of crimes/ However in recent times thelines have &een somewhat &lurred/ -a&our(s Tony ;lair adopted the phrase

>Tou!h on crime, tou!h on the causes of crimes@/ Ine outcome of -a&our(s

policies was actually the increase in the UK(s prison population across the UK/

However there is somewhat of a parado9 here, as accordin! to o=cial crime

1!ures released &y -a&our at the time, crime rates were fallin! yet the prison

policy was increasin!/ "hile on the other side of the political spectrum, when the

onservatives came to power in *00 they had to major cuts to the prison

&ud!et, as previously mentioned, due to the *008 economic crisis/ 3ccordin! to

Cavid ameron, !reater emphasis should &e placed on alternatives to prisons

due to the economic side of it and that prisons have a poor record for reducin!reo'endin! J 6$ of adults are reconvicted within one year of release/ +or those

servin! sentences of less than * months this increases to #8 : 5/# hi!her

than in *000 )accordin! to the Prison eform Trust./ Bn addition to this, the

current S2P !overnment had already stated that prisons were not the solution to

crime for many short:term prisoners and those alternatives should &e e9plored/

+rom all this is clear that many people are indeed rethin7in! current penal policy,

with many alternatives which have stated &ein! tested on a smaller scale/

Ine of the alternatives which has &een in use since *00$ is Home Cetention

urfews )HCs., which are enforced throu!h the use of electronic ta!!in!/ This

alternative was ori!inally used for low:ris7 prisoners servin! less than 6 years,

althou!h, controversially, since *008 it is now availa&le for lon!erLterm

prisoners/ This method is seen as an opportunity to o&viously reduce

overcrowdin!, however its stron!est point is ar!ua&ly its cost F*,000 per

prisoner as compared to the F50,000 for a prisoner in a custodial sentence/

However there also some ne!atives to the system, for e9ample Serco, the

company which runs the service in n!land and "ales, overchar!ed the UK

Movernment &y millions of pounds and even &illed them for ta!s that never

actually &ein! used/ There are also other forms of ta!!in! which has &een

su!!ested, as >So&riety ta!s@ which would &e considered for people convicted of

committin! alcohol fuelled crimes and is already in use in the United States of3merica/ Bt wor7s &y detectin! alcohol levels in the sweat of the person wearin!



them/ This would provide the individual incentive to !ive up alcohol and a way

to possi&ly even counter peer pressure, especially if the o'ender is youn!/ Ither

forms of MSP technolo!y could also &e used to monitor the movement of hi!h

ris7 individuals/ This satellite monitorin! would &e a&le to trac7 the movements

of se9 o'enders, placin! restriction orders on the individual(s movements while it

could also &e used to convict an o'ender if they commit a crime while wearin!

the ta!/

3 1nal alternative could &e ommunity Pay&ac7 Irders, which is when a court

orders &etween 80 and 500 hours of supervised wor7, which must &e completed

within $ months of the date of the sentence/ I'enders can carry out these PIs

in their free time if they are either in full:time or Jpart:time wor7/ The

advanta!es to PIs include the fact that it will allow o'enders to remain with

their families which could prevent the &rea7:up of the family/ This is !ood as it

means any possi&le children will not &e put into care, while it allows the o'ender

to maintain healthy social relationships which are vital in reha&ilitation/ Thisview has &een echoed &y professor of criminolo!y at Mlas!ow University +er!us

Ac2eil, who stated in a ;; interview that “'rison is not a good place to develop

positive social ties# in !act, it tends to break up and damage positive !amily

relationships and !orce you into relationships ith others ith similar problems.)

"hile another positive is the 1nancial aspect, as it is a!ain much cheaper to

implement than a short prison sentence at just F*,800 )accordin! to a ;; news

article titled >an community sentences replace jail?@./ However there are also

disadvanta!es to the system, the least of which &ein! that only E5 of all PIs

are actually completed and it may not seem li7e a &i! pro&lem, PIs have an

ima!e pro&lem as mem&ers of the pu&lic and the media &elieve they mi!ht &e asoft option that will fail to punish the prisoner/ Bt is clear from the evidence

a&ove that there are many alternatives which could &e considered in terms of

reform in current penal policy, however as lon! as these alternatives stic7 to

small amounts of o'enders usin! them, we will never truly 7now just how

e'ective they will &e/

To conclude, and in reference to the ori!inal <uestion, the statement is <uite

valid when it comes to UK penal policy/ +rom the information provided it is not a

surprise that there is this pro&lem of overcrowdin! within UK prisons and that

even more so, they are just simply too e9pensive/ Bt is clear that the alternatives

do indeed provide a solution to the pro&lems which have pla!ued current penal

systems and should, therefore &e considered/

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