With the tabloids here working themselves into a lather about low prison sentences, I doubt if most people will notice the voices of reason arguing that just putting more people in jail for longer is not going to help matters. But the furore about sentencing overlooks the grim reality of the British penal system today, argues Robert Chesshyre in The Observer (18 June).
[...] The way to reduce crime is to have constructive regimes; the way to have constructive regimes is to have fewer prisoners. Prison [...] embitters, hardens and (above all) often further disables thousands of (badly damaged) men and women each year. Are we a safer society more at ease with ourselves than when I first wrote about jails? As I scurry home, glancing furtively over my shoulder, I think not.
The Telegrah (24 June) has a profile of Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers, in which she raises concerns about the future if prison numbers continue to rise:
Although the chief inspector says prisons should not be “too cosy”, she insists they should not just lock people up. “We want to model a different kind of behaviour. If we don’t do that then prisons are just transit camps.”
[...] A disaster, she fears, is looming. Although there have been no large-scale riots or breakouts for some years, the “sheer pressure of numbers” is now creating a crisis. “We ignore at our peril the fact that this is a system managing a very pressurised environment. All of those working in prisons are only too aware of the very narrow tightrope that they walk every day. Prisons depend on dynamic security, they are very fragile places.”
RELATED:
Mind Hacks (22 June) informs us that
PBS have put an award winning documentary about the number of mentally ill people in America’s prisons online. The programme recently won the Grand Prize in the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards and asks difficult questions about why so many people with severe mental illness are inmates in the US prison system.
The Guardian (19 June) reports on a Samaritans scheme for prisoners that has helped save numerous lives over the last 14 years
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