Should there be a Royal Commission or a major public inquiry into our prisons?
The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, is calling for a Royal Commission or a major public inquiry into the state of our prisons. Since Labour came to power in 1997 the prison population has increased from 60,000 to 80,000, and they are planning to increase this figure to 100,000. One of the questions Anne Owers would like an answer to is why is it that there has been such an increase when the crime rate has been stable for years? Logically, one would expect a reduction in the prison population. Anne Owers is critical of Labour for not heading off the present prison crisis 10 years ago, and the plan to build Titan jails holding 2,500 prisoners. All the evidence shows that smaller more local prisons are more effective. Ministers believe that they are protecting the public with their ill thought out policies. "But the Chief Inspector thinks that ministers should spend less time worrying about building bigger jails and more time thinking about why so many people end up in them".
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A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
2 comments:
Do we just need some short sharp study teams to go to countries with less than 100/100 000 of the population in jail -- Germany, France, Finland, Sweden, heck, Northern Ireland -- and find out what we're doing wrong?
scott: I think what we are doing wrong is that politicians pay too much attention to tabloid headlines and editorials rather than pay more attention to the studies carried out in the countries you mention.
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