England and Wales together boost the largest prison population in Europe and one of its highest rates of incarceration, jailing 154 of every 100,000 residents, compared with 111 in Italy, 96 in France, 87 in Germany and 71 in Norway. After the riots the situation is worsening, explains Dick Skellington.
The population has more than doubled since 1993. Recently governors have expressed concern that the ensuing overcrowding could lead to risks of prison disturbances and riots.
Is it only just over a year ago since Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke announced his ‘rehabilitation revolution’? Within months of taking office the Coalition Government announced a new strategy. Unlike previous administrations it would, in Clarke’s words, ‘not simply bang up more and more people for longer’.
In the 12 months between Clarke’s statement, in July 2010, and July 2011, there was little sign that the prison population was reducing, and, of course, the August riots transformed any prospect of bringing it down. Fuelled by tougher sentences, few of which have been reduced so far on appeal, and reinforced by instructions from Government to deliver swift and ‘draconian’ punishments, the judiciary responded.
The average jail term imposed after the riots for burglary was 14.1 months (8.8 months last year), perpetrators received on average 2 years for robbery (compared to 8.8 months last year), 7.1 months for theft (2.4 months last year), and 10.3 months for violent disorder (5.3 months last year).
The courts have also remanded in custody over two-thirds of those awaiting trial for riot-related offences, compared to the normal figure of 10 per cent. More than 40 per cent of rioters sentenced by magistrates have been imprisoned, compared with a usual imprisonment rate of 12 per cent. For Crown Courts the imprisonment rate for rioters was over 90 per cent, compared with one in three last year for similar offences.
In addition, the evidence so far from the riots suggests that the majority of the rioters already had criminal records, with only 27 per cent of suspected rioters having no criminal record. Those rioters with criminal records had committed an average of 15 offences, suggesting the involvement of career criminals in the disturbances.
According to Clarke he inherited a ‘broken penal system’ that had failed to deal with a ‘feral underclass’. The August riots componded an already grave scenario.
Last month the most comprehensive Home Office survey on people charged over the riots showed that they were poorer, younger and of lower educational achievement than average. One half were under 21; five per cent of those charged were over 40, and only 13 per cent of those arrested were identified as 'gang members' (the media at the time suggested gangs played a more dominant role).
More than one third of the young people involved in the riots were excluded from school during 2009-10 (the norm for Year 11 pupils is around six per cent excluded).
The Ministry of Justice report concluded:
"It is clear that compared to population averages, those brought before the courts were more likely to be in receipt of free school meals or benefits, were more likely to have had special educational needs and be absent from school, and are more likely to have some form of criminal history."
The rise in prison population following the riots is raising huge problems for the prison service. The crisis has prompted a stern riposte from the Director of the Prison Reform Trust, Juliet Lyon. She commented: "Unless the courts set the way for a return to fair and proportionate sentencing and take account of public support for community payback and offenders making amends to victims, prisons will be reduced to vast, overcrowded warehouses, reconviction rates will rise and the public money saved by the Ministry of Justice thus far will be thrown away."
Officially, the coalition still plans to cut more than 2,500 prison places but in the meantime, we seem to be doing little more than banging people up in overcrowded conditions, with regimes that are hard pressed to offer any employment or education.
Clarke's dream of a more liberal penal system is becoming ever more distant. And of course no one mentions the taboo possibility: that spending cuts cause crime.
Dick Skellington 17 November
Cartoon by Catherine Pain
