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 on BBC News Online

Straw scraps Titan prisons plan

Monday 27th April 2009

Plans for three 2,500-place Titan prisons have been scrapped, Justice Secretary Jack Straw has confirmed.

Mr Straw told MPs in the Commons that five “modern, purpose-built” 1,500-capacity jails would be built instead. In December 2007, the government announced plans to build the three Titan jails at a cost of £350m each. Shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve welcomed the “u-turn” by the government but said plans for “giant warehouses” had been flawed from the start. He also regretted that the decision had been leaked in advance.

To read the article in full, click here.

Tags: Dominic Grieve, Jack Straw, titan prisons

Make Justice Work respond to the House of Commons Justice Select Committee report into prison overcrowding

Tuesday 22nd July 2008

Press Statement: Titan prisons won’t work – Channel funds to alternatives that will

Following the publication of the report by the House of Commons Justice Select Committee into prison overcrowding, Roma Hooper, Director of a new campaign organisation called Make Justice Works says:

“The Justice Committee’s report serves as a damning indictment of the Government’s plans for titan prisons. These are yet another example of knee jerk criminal justice policies that have been forced through with minimal consultation and little evidence that they will actually work. The result is wasted money and wasted lives.

“It is about time Jack Straw heeds the warnings and rethinks the government’s plans for titan prisons. Instead of wasting £2.3bn trying to build their way out of the current crisis the government should channel funds into drastically under-resourced alternatives to custody such as robust community punishments, drug rehabilitation, mental health support and dedicated prolific and priority offender schemes.

“This is not about being fluffy and liberal; it is about using alternatives to custody, for less serious offences, which are proven to be more effective at reducing criminal behaviour, increasing public safety and offering much better value for money. In other words, it is about calling for a criminal justice system that works”.

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: Jack Straw, Make Justice Work, titan prisons