Since taking the helm of the government three months ago, Gordon Brown has steered a skilful course. Making clear that he will not cede an inch of the centre-ground territory New Labour has monopolised since the mid-1990s, the prime minister has pushed forward with critical public service reforms like academies; refused to compromise on economic stability and held firm on public sector pay; and returned to the question of how we give the police the powers they need to combat the threat of terrorism.
At the same time, however, Brown has begun the task of rebuilding the critical progressive coalition which brought Labour to power in 1997 but which dangerously fractured at the 2005 general election. Plans to expand the supply of affordable housing, a radical package of constitutional reforms, and a promise to fight a renewed battle for ‘hearts and minds’ in the Islamic world have all been announced. Brown has also shown a commendable desire to review the long-term challenges facing Britain, examining issues as diverse as carers, children with special education needs, and nuclear materials proliferation.
On one issue, however, the prime minister has so far remained silent: Britain’s failing policy of imprisoning a higher proportion of its citizens than any other west European nation. Its attitude towards prison has probably been the greatest domestic policy failing of Labour’s 10 years in power. The scale of that policy failure is clear: last October, the then home secretary, John Reid, announced that when Labour came to power in 1997 the prison system was 223 places short of its overall capacity. Ten years and 20,000 additional prison places later, he admitted, the system was still 248 short of overall capacity.
Unchecked, this totally self-defeating policy is set to continue: in July last year, Reid announced plans for an additional 8,000 places. Since then, plans for a further 1,500 have been revealed. If completed, Britain will have the unenviable distinction of having not simply surpassed our west European neighbours in terms of our rate of imprisonment; we’ll have left Bulgaria behind and be fast approaching rates in Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.
The waste involved, both social and economic, is scandalous. Those who care for the public purse should be appalled that £42,000 per year is frittered away on each non-violent prisoner the country bangs up, as against £2,400 on a community sentence. And it is not even as if this careless largesse fulfils one of prison’s primary responsibilities: to rehabilitate those it returns to society at the end of their sentence. Nearly two-thirds of former prisoners are reconvicted within two years of being released – a figure which rises to a staggering three-quarters for young men. By contrast, the number of those given a community sentence who reoffend is much closer to one-half.
But a party with Labour’s values needs to be concerned by more than economic waste. If we examine who is being locked up, it’s easy to see that prison has become the social service of last resort: a place to send those living chaotic lives – especially, the mentally ill and those suffering from drug addiction – whom other agencies, however well-intentioned, have been unable to assist.
Brown now has a golden opportunity provided by public opinion to signal a new start. Forget the populism of the tabloids; the public has moved on. Even at the end of a summer dominated by stories of crime – each genuinely appalling – 49 per cent of voters told ICM that they believed prison isn’t working: it makes the bad worse and fails to deter. And even the victims of crime concur. According to research by SmartJustice, 61 per cent of those who have suffered first hand do not believe that prison stops re-offending by non-violent criminals. Let’s also not forget that for all ministers’ tough-talking Labour has trailed the Tories on law and order for most of this year – all at a time of falling crime.
But what form might that fresh start take? Brown should begin by accepting the recommendations of Baroness Corston’s review of women in the criminal justice system, which reported in March. Over the last decade, the number of women in prison has doubled – and the majority are held for non-violent crimes. More women are jailed for shop-lifting than any other offence. It’s high time that non-violent vulnerable women who commit crime are treated in the kind of specialised small units that can treat the causes of their offending – drug abuse, domestic violence and poverty being chief among them.
Corston’s appeal – for ‘a strong and consistent message from the top of government … that prison is not the right place for women offenders who pose no risk to the public’ – should then become the lode star for further reform. These reforms should, of course, be preceded by just the kind of wide-ranging review that the prime minister has employed to examine other long-term problems facing the country. And a liberal Conservative with credibility on the issue would be just the right choice to head it, ensuring that the resulting policy unites both centre-ground and progressive voters. Maybe someone at No 10 should get the prime minister Peter Bottomley’s mobile?