Open prisons are the answer to our jail crisis

Britain should move thousands of inmates into low-security open prisons, according to David Gauke, the former Tory justice secretary, who is chairing the government’s Sentencing Review. Gauke’s comments have sparked a predictably furious backlash, but he’s absolutely correct – and I should know.

“We don’t make as much use of open prisons as we might do,” says Gauke, who thinks open prisons might be the answer to addressing the prison overcrowding crisis and reducing reoffending. The reality is that open prisons are one of the few parts of the justice system that work well. It makes sense to make better use of them.

During my time as a prisoner, I experienced the worst and best of the British prison system. I served the first half of my sentence at HMP Wandsworth, a ‘closed’, high security, Category B prison in central London.