Capacity pressures on the prison system brought it ‘dangerously close to total collapse’ last year, says the interim report of former justice secretary David Gauke’s Independent sentencing review.
The prison population has grown rapidly over the last 30 years, says the document, largely the result of prison sentences being ‘lengthened substantially by successive governments’. The review’s final report will be published in the spring and will set out recommendations to ensure that the demand for prison places does not exceed supply and is ‘sustainable in the longer term’.
Mandatory minimum sentences were introduced in 1997 for a range of offences, the report points out, including a mandatory minimum of seven years for a third class A drug trafficking offence. The document includes case studies from places where the prison population has significantly fallen in recent years, including Spain, the Netherlands and Texas, all of which have reformed their drug sentencing policies.
In an op ed column for the New Statesman Gauke writes that measures to ease the ‘great strain’ on the probation system could include wider use of ‘drug, alcohol and mental health treatments’, while there is ‘encouraging evidence that problem-solving courts are effective in rehabilitating offenders – but we have very few of them. Relatively small sums of money (compared to the prison budget) could do much more to reduce reoffending.’ A report from the Prison Reform Trust earlier this month found that less than half of prison leavers had settled accommodation on their release.
‘This is not simply a crisis of prison capacity,’ said director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, Andrew Neilson. ‘Our overcrowded and violent prisons are breeding grounds for crime, while probation services are overstretched and under-resourced within the community. We welcome these findings from the Review and look forward to proposals to reset the system. Action cannot come quickly enough if we are to achieve a sustainable and more effective course for prisons and probation in the future.’
‘We have waited a long time for such a clear and brave analysis of the factors that have led to the overcrowding and financial crises in the prison system,’ added chief executive officer at Forward, Mike Trace. ‘We now call on the inquiry team to be similarly clear and brave in recommending, and quickly implementing, measures to get more offenders into employment, mental health, and addiction recovery programmes.’
Independent sentencing review – history and trends in sentencing available here