With the mass releases from prison underway, politicians have turned their attention to what happens after inmates leave jail. On Tuesday, Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary announced that when necessary budget hotels will be used to ensure that people released early have a roof over their heads. On Wednesday, the Times reported that Sadiq Khan has called for an ‘honest conversation’ about allowing some prisoners to ‘jump in the queue to get housing to avoid them reoffending again’.
If we are ever to fix our broken justice system then we must bring reoffending down
To many people this will feel outrageous. There is something utterly unjust in the idea that those who have broken the law should be rewarded with a scarce council property while more deserving, law-abiding citizens wait years. Is the government really offering houses to criminals while cutting winter fuel payments for pensioners? These kinds of choices add fuel to the idea that Labour are pursuing two-tier government
Why choose a policy almost guaranteed to be unpopular? A Ministry of Justice spokesman emphasised that hotels will only be used for ‘a very small number of individuals’ and will only apply to people released under the early release scheme, meaning there shouldn’t be hotel rooms for anyone ‘serving a sentence for violent, sexual, terrorism or domestic abuse offences.’ The spokesman also told me, ‘it is important for offenders to have a roof over their head when they leave prison, otherwise there is a high risk they will reoffend and end up behind bars.’ Are they right?
Reoffending is a scourge. In 2019, when the government last produced official data, they estimated that in England and Wales it costs £18 billion a year. The true number now is likely to be significantly higher. Reoffending also represents about a third of the total cost of all crime. If we are ever to fix our broken justice system then we must bring reoffending down.
Housing makes a huge difference to this goal. People without a home will find it much harder to stay away from drugs, and often return to crime out of desperation. In fact the government estimates that prisoners released to stable accommodation are 50 per cent less likely to commit further crimes. Campbell Robb, Chief Executive of NACRO, a charity which works to help house prison leavers, said to me ‘without somewhere to live, it’s almost impossible to get or keep a job, to access healthcare or substance misuse treatment and wider support – all the things we know are critical to reducing reoffending.’
If the argument that housing prisoners reduces crime doesn’t persuade you, then perhaps a financial one will. As Campbell Robb says, ‘it costs on average nearly £52,000 to keep someone in prison for a year, a figure which eclipses the average annual rent of almost £16,000.’ As our prison system has continued to collapse, we have seen a 31 per cent increase in the number of people being released homeless. As I’ve often written, our staggeringly high recall rate (over 55 per cent) is putting huge additional pressure on our jails. If providing budget hotels or basic housing to former prisoners alleviates that pressure it may well be work it.
Less reoffending means fewer victims, scarce public funds saved and perhaps some respite for the courts, prisons and probation, all of which are far beyond their capacity. As much as it may stick in the throat, the government is making the right decision here, and we will all benefit from it. It’s just a shame the ministers aren’t making the arguments more publicly. It’s almost as though they feel no need to persuade or convince the public, and with such a huge majority it’s easy to understand this temptation. But if we are actually going to fix our broken justice system then politicians are going to have to persuade and lead, not just announce policies which are likely to infuriate many people.
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