Make Justice Work in the Times

Friday 10th July 2009

‘Lock ‘em up’ approach to low-level offenders must change

Of the people sent to overcrowded prisons by British courts, two thirds are given a sentence of less than 12 months, taking valuable resources away from serious offenders from whom the public need protecting.

The number of people receiving custodial sentences has risen inexorably in the past ten years – we now lock up people who ten years ago would never have fallen into the prison net.

Research shows that short-term prison sentences do not work. Reoffending rates remain persistently high for low-level offenders given custodial sentences, and locking them in cells is costing the State millions each year.

Although the Ministry of Justice has dropped the £3 billion plan to build three Titan prisons, six new “mini-Titans” are still planned at an even higher cost to the taxpayer. We need to stop locking up low-level, non-violent offenders on short-term sentences.

Instead, we must invest in more effective community-based sentences that help to pull those offenders back into society and away from crime.

Such a policy has already begun to take hold in the United States where there is a growing realisation that locking people up briefly is expensive, intensifies offending and does not work as punishment. In Scotland the ruling SNP stated its intention to phase out prison sentences of less than six months, replacing them with tough community sentences.

And, next week, the Transition to Adulthood Alliance, a group including virtually every significant justice policy organisation in Britain, will publish its latest findings, which will also call for a review of the policy of locking up any 18 to 24-year-old for less than six months.

But in England and Wales the “lock ‘em up” culture remains an intractable government policy. After 18 months of an economic downturn and last week’s spending review, it seems bizarre that, although other public services are coming under massive scrutiny, the Government is not willing to accept that short-term prison sentences are costing society billions each year.

We commissioned Matrix, an independent economic researcher, to undertake a study of one group of low-level offenders who make up a huge proportion of those who receive short sentences: drug users. We asked Matrix to study the cost benefit of locking up this group against diverting them onto robust community-based sentences that include intense drug treatment. The figures were astounding.

About 7,873 drug users were given sentences of less than 12 months in 2007, making up almost 10 per cent of the total number of offenders sentenced to prison that year. Our research suggests that society would have saved almost £1 billion had these drug-using offenders been given residential drug treatment instead of simply being thrown into a cell.

We are not calling for a root-and-branch change in Britain’s prison system. We are calling for a commonsense approach that is solvable and appropriate to the problem. We have evidence to prove that short-term sentencing does not work and that properly resourced community-based sentences do. Low-level crime is devastating to its victims, but blindly locking up offenders doesn’t give anyone a long-term payback.

• Roma Hooper is the founder and director of Make Justice Work

Tags: low level offenders, ministry of justice, overcrowding, prisons, Roma Hooper, short-term sentences, titan prisons

Make Justice Work in the Independent

Thursday 2nd July

Letters: Prison Sentences

Stop handing down useless, costly prison sentences

It was with great interest that we read Robert Verkaik’s article (29 June) on the performance of private prisons. As the article points out, the Government is committed to building five more private prisons to accommodate the rise in prison numbers. However there is scant evidence that prison, especially for people sentenced to less than 12 months, stops reoffending or represents value for money for the taxpayer.

This week marks the launch of Make Justice Work, a major new campaign aimed at reforming short-term prison sentencing in the UK. The prison population of England and Wales, currently at approximately 83,000, has risen massively in the last ten years, not because crime has increased but owing to a rise in the numbers of custodial sentences handed down to low-level, non-violent offenders.

New independent research published for this campaign shows that the majority of community sentences provide similar or better value for money and effectiveness than short-term prison sentences. Looking at short-sentenced drug-using offenders in 2007 alone, the research shows that society would have saved an estimated £1bn, throughout the offenders’ lifetime, had they been given residential drug treatment instead of being sentenced to 12 months or less in prison. The annual cost savings for the first six years post-sentencing would have been £60m-100m.

While the moral case for locking fewer people up is compelling, it is hard evidence that proves reform is really needed. All crime has a negative impact on society and specifically the immediate victims, but locking the perpetrators up ultimately does little to prevent future offending. Short-term prison sentences have a negligible, if not negative, impact on reoffending, while costing the taxpayer an obscene amount of money. We already have the highest rate of imprisonment in western Europe – we have to halt this trend before it is too late.

Roma Hooper, Director, Make Justice Work;

John Austin MP;

Humfrey Malins MP;

John Leech MP;

Baroness Gibson;

Lord Woolf, Lord Chief Justice, 2000-2002;

Lord Ramsbotham, Chief Inspector of Prisons, 1995-2001;

Sir Charles Pollard, Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, 1991-2001;

Lord Thomas of Gresford, Liberal Democrat Shadow Attorney General;

Stephen Bubb, CEO, ACEVO

Tags: independent, Lord Ramsbotham, Make Justice Work, offenders, prison sentences, Roma Hooper, tax payer

Make Justice Work in the Guardian

Friday 25th June 2009

An invitation to reoffend

The short term prison sentence is a disaster for offenders and society. But there are alternatives.

It was with a heavy heart that I read of Alan Johnson’s pledge this week to revive the state crusade against antisocial behaviour. Our new home secretary was concerned that the government had been “coasting” on the issue. The prospect of more rhetoric about yob culture leaves me weary. But it’s further troubling because another spike in Asbo use will inevitably cause an increase in one of the most individually corrosive, socially useless and economically indefensible elements of our criminal justice system: the short-term prison sentence.

To read the article in full, click here.

Tags: Alan Johnson, asbo, criminal justice, Make Justice Work, Roma Hooper, short term sentence

Make Justice Work respond to HM Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales Annual Report

Thursday 29th January 2009

Press Statement: Government must heed warnings before it is too late

Following the publication of the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Dame Anne Owers, annual report, Roma Hooper, Director of a new campaign organisation called Make Justice Works says:

“Anne Owers’ annual report reveals, yet again, the real scale of the crisis in our prison system. It is now a matter of urgency that the government recognise that building their way out of the prison problem is not the answer.

“Surely instead of pouring in a minimum of £2.3 billion into titan prisons, throwing more money at a system which is dangerously overstretched and is not effective at reducing re-offending, we should be trying to reduce prison numbers by investing in alternatives to custody for low risk offenders, which are now proven to be more effective at reducing re-offending and cost far less money.

“Diverting funding into robust  and effective alternatives to prison, which can encompass training and employment schemes, drug rehabilitation and mental health support, will not only release time, space and money for specialist rehabilitation for our most serious offenders who should be in prison, but also reduce the dangers associated with overcrowding.

“Surely, this is the moment for such measures, which will save us all money and make us safer, to make it onto the government’s agenda once and for all”.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1. For further information or to speak to Roma Hooper, please contact Geoff Duggan on 0207 031 1164 or 0778 655 7182. 
2. Make Justice Work is a new media campaign designed to raise public awareness of the costliness of locking up non-violent offenders and the futility of short-term sentences while at the same time identifying better ways of reducing re-offending and improving public safety. The campaign will launch officially in spring 2009.
3. Roma Hooper is the Director of Make Justice Work. A well known campaigner and penal policy expert she is also a Co-Founder and Chair of the Prison Radio Association, Chair of the Griffins Society (a practitioner based research organisation looking at the needs of female offenders) and Vice-Chair of the Foundation Training Company (an organisation that runs a series of prison based resettlement and development programmes).

Tags: Anne Owers, Make Justice Work, Roma Hooper