‘Purposeful activity’ is a phrase often heard in discussions about our prisons. It describes work, training, therapeutic courses and other meaningful activities which improve prisoners’ mental health and make them less likely to behave antisocially in prison or offend after release. In theory our prisons should make sure that most prisoners are spending a significant amount of time out of their cells participating in this purposeful activity. Unfortunately, a report published last Friday by His Majesty’s Inspector of Prisons reveals that the reality falls far short of that. Of 32 closed prisons inspected in 2023-24, 30 of them were rated ‘poor or not sufficiently good’. In practice this means that ‘more than two thirds of prisoners were spending most of their days in their cells with little to occupy them’. In men’s ‘reception prisons’ the picture is even worse. These are the local jails which most remand and newly-sentenced prisoners are sent to before being distributed to ‘training’ or ‘resettlement’ prisons across the country. They are often particularly crowded, and have a highly varied population. While in theory prisoners should not spend very long in reception prisons, in reality many are jailed in them for months or years. In these jails ‘50% of prisoners reported spending more than 22 hours in their cells on a typical weekday’, while 72 per cent report this at weekends.
I spent the second half of my sentence at Hollesley Bay, an open jail on the Suffolk coast
So what? You may think that prison should be tough, and that locking people up all day is an effective punishment. In my experience though, it does no good and a great deal of harm. During the spring and summer of 2020, while imprisoned at HMP Wandsworth, we were under lockdown because of Covid. As a result, almost every prisoner spent 23 or more hours a day behind his cell door. Cells at Wandsworth, like those in most prisons, are about the size of a car parking space. In that tight, cramped tomb is squeezed a bunk bed, a loo, a basin, a narrow table and a stand for the television. Two men eat, sleep, crap, talk and stare at the TV. In an environment which is simultaneously empty of sensory variety, and surrounded by clanging, banging, shouting and jangling, it is no wonder that many prisoners turn to drugs or drink, or succumb to depression and despair. As Charlie Taylor, chief inspector of prisons told me: ‘Prisoners locked in their cells for long periods of time become bored and demotivated and the temptation to take drugs to pass the time becomes stronger.’ Charlie’s right. Staring at daytime television doesn’t make people more likely to find work after release, improve mental health, or reduce dependency on substances.
Further, frustrated prisoners who spend all day locked up are more likely to become violent, either with their cellmates, or with other prisoners and staff on the wing. I remember the night my neighbour assaulted his cellmate. After 15 minutes his victim screamed and pleaded before staff finally opened the cell door and brought the assault to an end. According to the most recently available data, covering the twelve months to March 2024, there were 28,292 assaults on prisoners (327 per 1,000 prisoners), representing a rise of 19 per cent over the previous year. Meanwhile, there were 9,847 assaults on staff, an increase of 24 per cent over the previous year. Given this high level of risk and danger, it is no wonder that prisons struggle to retain officers, putting ever greater pressure on those who remain, and making it even more difficult to offer productive time out of cells.
Building more prisons and restoring staff numbers will take time which the government doesn’t have. They need to pursue radical action. One solution which would significantly reduce pressure on the reception jails is to change what happens when prisoners are sentenced. Instead of sending the vast majority of prisoners to reception prisons, we could look to assess risk as a part of sentencing. Courts already have on-site probation staff who produce pre-sentencing reports for people convicted of crimes and awaiting sentencing. They, in conjunction with judges and lawyers, could identify those people who represent the lowest risk, and who could be sent immediately to open prisons.
Our open jails are environments where serious, meaningful purposeful activity happens, often outside the prison, with inmates allowed out each day under ‘release on temporary licence’. I spent the second half of my sentence at Hollesley Bay, an open jail on the Suffolk coast. There I saw the ways in which a good open prison can transform lives for the better. Men attended college, university or work, and built the habits of pro-social, law-abiding and positive behaviour which mean they are much less likely to offend again and be returned to prison. A bold government would change how sentencing operates, take pressure off the most crowded jails, and reduce reoffending. I hope the Lord Chancellor and Prisons Minister are feeling bold.
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