Shema Begum works at the Local Government Information Unit, which has just published a report entitled Primary Justice. This report proposes devolving control of power and funding for specific parts of the criminal justice system to upper tier local authorities. Shema explains more here.
Our centralised prison system may keep the public safe while offenders are inside, but it fails to equip ex offenders to lead law abiding lives once they are released. We need a new localised approach. This is the verdict of a three month inquiry conducted by the Local Government Information Unit in cooperation with the All Party Parliamentary Local Government Group.
During this inquiry sixty local authorities submitted written evidence and high profile commentators such as Charles Clarke (former Home Secretary), Lord Ramsbotham (Former Chief Inspector of Prisons) and Louise Casey (Government Neighbourhood Crime and Justice Adviser) were grilled by a panel of MPs and academics. Their recommendations are detailed in a report launched today entitled Primary Justice.
We all know the facts. There are currently 82,000 people in prison, the second highest incarceration rate across Western Europe, and 10% above its stated capacity. Despite overcrowded prison conditions most offenders return to prison within two years of their release. A typical offender leaves prison with a £46 allowance to support themselves for a fortnight. With no job, and often no home or loved ones to return to, it is easy to understand why some may find it difficult to become law abiding citizens.
Thirty five percent of the prison population consists of those on remand, sentenced to less than one year, or those under 18. Many of them will leave prison a greater threat to society than when they entered. Compared with the general population a significant number of offenders are deprived of what many of the rest of us take for granted; they often suffer from mental disorders, have been taken into care as children, are unemployed and have low literacy and numeracy skills. Nobody is saying this is an excuse for the acts they have committed but it does present a clear picture for those willing to take a look; in society these people are seen as vulnerable, but once they enter prison this no longer matters.
Our report introduces a new concept to tackle these problems; Primary Justice. Primary Justice focuses on early intervention to prevent people entering the criminal justice system. It represents a more local and democratic approach to crime. Restorative justice should be an integral part of primary justice. It brings victims and offenders together to agree a way forward that repairs damage. It takes into account an offender’s individual circumstances, the reasons behind their offending and actively searches for the best way to deal with each case.
Our report focuses on offenders sentenced to less than 12 months because the national offender management service does not serve them. Those sentenced to less than 12 months receive no assistance. Our humane approach is not only morally right but also much more likely to reduce re-offending, encourage victim satisfaction, and protect the public from crime. We want to give more power to Local Authorities. Distinctive local approaches can then be trialed, including liberal democrat models in the authorities they control. To read more click here.
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2 Comments
Several years ago now, while Ms Casey was merely a homelessness Tsar, I did some thinking about this, driven by studying some of the ways they deal with this in the Netherlands and Denmark I believe, where they have what seems to be weekend detention centres, or night-time detention centres. If they have a job, people go to their jobs as usual, but their sentence becomes one of selected training visits to these centres, where they can take their family too, and which will consist of lots of learning, at a pace they can cope with, to address some of the issues that either got them into trouble in the first place – anger, drugs, whatever – or which are going to prevent them getting back into straight life when they come out. It could be such simple things as learning to live alone – you know, basic cooking, shopping, budgeting and domestic skills. So, I do think it is definitely worth a look.
However, now that I am a confirmed anarchist, I really think the answer lies in a polycentric legal system with an emphasis on reparation rather than punishment, with the possibility of residential facilities from which people can work to pay their reparations in an atmosphere of respect rather than brutality and so on.
TYhere is lots of good stuff out there on a libertarian/market anarchist’s concept of justice and restitution services. I’d recommend the chapter on crime and punishment in Morris and Linda Tannehill’s “The Market for Liberty” – which is available in print to buy but in audio form for free (Chapters 9 and ten on this subject are in audio episode 9
Also, in writing, some of the work of Gil Guillory, now of the Centre for a Stateless Society, which is listed on his Google pages are well worth a look.
This staggering revelation that in the UK now has a prison population of 82,000 where most offenders when released only have £46 to enter a `parole hostel’ or half way house, to make a new start in life.
It is a harrowing social indictment on how much this Government cares about giving the ex-offenders any chance of making a new start.
It also explains why there is currently a 71% `recidivist rate’ of re-offending when no lessons learned by the offender.
On this point Sir Ming Campbell and Nick Clegg have both spoken in key speeches.
Offenders invariably go out into streets after in many cases one mistake and some in prison, as a result of a miscarriage of justice.
I am someone whom greatly respects the best practice in our justice system but
remain scathing that the prison service at present is Victorian and moribund in task and outcome for the 21st C.
I make the following comments:
1.It must be incumbent on Government to bring into play a `restorative justice’ programme that only uses prison as a last resort and focuses on making the offender aware of community service and victim empathy.
2.It has been apparent since the time of Victorian Prisons that society has not changed much from its emphasis on deterrence and punishment and does not focus on re-education and retribution.
3.Offenders sentenced to terms of imprisonment, are often all too often subject to enforcing similar social sentences of waiting and hardship for their spouses and children.
4.An offender`s child commits no crime save for having being born to a man or woman ,whom is still seen as the father or mother figure in that child`s world but nevertheless is unable to fulfil any parental role due to their incarceration.
5.The christian religion and many world religions teach us that moral redemption can occur even after crimes are committed, if there is a genuine request for forgiveness and the power of will.
6.The present prison has no time or room for individual moral redemption and that is what is stagnating the high prison numbers.No one is getting out of the escalating stairwell of crime.
7.It is time to create a `Prisons Enquiry’ along the same lines embarked on by Elizabeth Fry in the late 18th C.
8.It should look at why Prisons are failing to re-educate people and why they do not offer a fairer human chance of a new start for the vast majority of British offenders.
9.I concede that the punishment must fit the crime,and sentences commensurate, especially in all instances of serious indictable criminal behaviour, when the deterrent and removal from the community of an offender is the only option.