The UK’s record on prisons is in comparison to most civilised societies, lamentable, and a huge drain on public funds, as well as public wellbeing. In 2019 the Government’s prison policy seems based on replicating Victorian prisoner warehouses and is now pledging to further fund their growth.
In the run up to the imminent general election The Conservative Party with no fear of a Labour Party hell bent on self-destruction, is clearly courting their perceived threat, The Brexit Party. Headline grabbing policies from the Government are being launched in the direction of Brexit Party voters. Getting tough on crime being one such sally.
Prime Minister Johnson has announced spending ‘plans’ to build new prisons to hold an additional 10,000 prisoners in the UK and spend £1.2bn on doing so. In The Times yesterday the same spending was reported as £2.5bn, but yet again no details of where the money is coming from, policy without detail.
If we ignore the politics and look at the practicalities, the vast majority of prisoners are serial reoffenders, people who for a range of reasons find themselves back in prison shortly after release.
Figures from The Ministry of Justice show the average reoffending rate is about 30%, but in sentences of six months or less this shoots up to almost 65%.
A recent report from The Ministry of Justice also shows a 22% overall increase in the number of proven reoffences per prisoner between 2011 and 2017. So, the current system is clearly making things worse not better.
Rehabilitating prisoners to not reoffend and then contribute to rather than take from society has always been the best option. Many methods have been tried and tested, with one now reported by The Ministry of Justice as showing “a statistically significant result”. Prisoners participating in The Clink Charity’s innovative hospitality training scheme have (past tense) a far lower reoffending rate.
The aggregate findings between 2009 and 2016 show that Clink graduates had a 15% reoffending rate compared to the comparison group’s 22%, a 7 percentage point difference and a 32% improvement.
Brixton Prison Clink graduates reoffending rate of 11% compared to the comparison group’s 32% show an improvement of a 21 percentage points difference and a 65.6% improvement.
It is clear from the results that The Clink Charity rehabilitation training programme works. It has been seen to reduce reoffending by 32% overall, and 65% in one prison alone.
In the UK it is estimated that each new prison place costs £119,000 and that the annual average cost for each prisoner exceeds £40,000.
Prisoners that reoffend continue to cost the UK taxpayer billions of pounds every year, the cost in wellbeing for victims is far higher.
Dealing with the cause should be a far higher priority than dealing with the effects.
If there is now a proven method of rehabilitation, that in the words of The Ministry of Justice achieved a “statistically significant result” in reducing reoffending, should the Government be investing £1.2bn in The Clink rather than building more prisons?
Changing Attitudes and Transforming Lives | Chris Moore | TEDxLondonBusinessSchool
Changing Attitudes and Transforming Lives | Chris Moore | TEDxLondonBusinessSchool