On Saturday night, Labour announced its plans to ‘fix the prison crisis and keep criminals behind bars’. If this announcement is the full extent of Labour’s prison policy, then disaster awaits them in government.
At least Labour seems to recognise some of the problems. They point out that as a result of overcrowding our prisons are a ‘powder keg waiting to explode’, and that the early release scheme, under which prisoners are being released up to 70 days early, is ‘creating a potential risk to the public’. They point out that one inmate was freed early despite being ‘a risk to children’. Labour is also right that the Tories’ mismanagement of prisons over the past 14 years is the reason police are being instructed to ‘arrest fewer criminals and deliberately delay court hearings’. The Opposition recognises that our prisons often make inmates worse, being ‘breeding grounds for crime’, with reoffending costing at least £18 billion a year.
Labour are only planning to do what the Tories have planned, but faster
Labour believes that the Tories haven’t built prison places fast enough, delivering only 6,000 of the 20,000 new places they promised by the end of next year. Their solution to this is for prisons to be designated as being ‘of national importance’, which will allow the secretary of state to approve planning applications for new or expanded prisons.
On its own terms this is a pretty decent idea, and one Labour might also put to good use approving nuclear power stations, reservoirs, and other infrastructure which our country so desperately needs. Unfortunately, even if Labour manages to add another 14,000 places by the end of 2025, the prison population is forecast to rise to almost 100,000 by then. All that new capacity will be consumed by more inmates entering the system.
Why is the prison population growing in such an unmanageable fashion? Prison sentences are being used less, after all. In 2012, almost 100,000 people were sentenced to a custodial sentence. Last year only 71,745 were. However, over the same time period, average sentences have risen from 14.5 months to 20.9 months. The problem is that politicians have consistently chosen to prove how tough on crime they are by proposing the popular policy of raising sentences, without funding or planning the necessary expansion in the system.
In addition to longer sentences, the growing remand population is straining the prison system. Prisoners are held on remand while awaiting trial, and as the National Audit Office reported last month, the crown court backlog currently stands at its ‘highest ever level’, with 67,573 cases outstanding at the end of December 2023 – a 78 per cent increase over the end of 2019. Meanwhile over 18,000 cases have been waiting over a year to come to trial. In addition to the greater strain put on victims and defendants, these delays have driven the remand population to 16,458, the highest level for ‘at least fifty years’.
As our prisons fail to rehabilitate inmates, and in many cases make them more likely to reoffend, the probation service is struggling with its own staffing crisis. Meanwhile, far more released prisoners are being recalled to prison. Over 12,000 current prisoners have been recalled after release, another ‘record high’ according to the Ministry of Justice.
Many of these problems are created outside our prisons; until there’s significantly more judges, lawyers and courtrooms available, the backlog will remain. Until the probation service is properly staffed and functioning well, recalls will remain high. But our prisons themselves are also to blame. We know that leaving prison with a stable home, a job and a support network minimises people’s chances of reoffending. And yet only one out of 37 men’s prisons received a positive rating for ‘purposeful activity’ (work, training or education) in 2022-2023, only 17 per cent of prisons achieved their target for releasing inmates with a home to go to and only 4 per cent of prisons achieve their target for released prisoners being in work six weeks after release.
This is disastrous, but not surprising. While inside, 42 per cent of male prisoners are in their cells for 22 or more hours a day during the week, rising to 60 per cent over the weekends. Only an average of 14 per cent of prisoners are working while in prison.
In addition to building more prison spaces, Labour says it will ‘bring together prison governors and local employers to create employment councils’. This already happens; good governors and good prisons already engage with local employers.
On the basis of this announcement, Labour are only planning to do what the Tories have planned, but faster. I approached Labour for comment, asking whether this is the extent of their plan for the prison system, but they didn’t respond before I filed this piece. If they really don’t have anything further planned then I’m afraid neither party is taking prisons seriously. If that is the case, we face disaster in the coming months.
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