When someone is imprisoned, it is usually the single greatest investment we as a society have ever made in them. It costs around £65,000 to send someone to prison, and an additional £40,000 annually after that. For many prisoners, this far exceeds the amount spent on educating them at school, treating them in hospitals and clinics or helping them to find work. And yet, our prison system is subject to far less scrutiny than education, the National Health Service or our jobcentres.

As a result, our prisons have not changed significantly in their approach for decades. The 80,000 prisoners in the United Kingdom are some of the most vulnerable people in society; as many as 90 per cent are estimated to have some form of mental health problem and close to 40 per cent have a drug addiction. And yet, the facilities and programmes needed to treat them, to improve their chances once they have been released are either facing cuts or simply have never been in place.

It is no wonder, then, that nearly half of all adult prisoners reoffend within one year of being released. This process of imprisonment and reoffending is estimated to cost the taxpayer between £9.5-13bn each year. For the people behind these statistics, a life in and out of custody cannot possible be the best option. It is vital that the complex cycle of socioeconomic and personal factors that underlie criminality are addressed, if we are to lessen the human and economic cost of crime.

For victims of crime, and our society more generally, addressing this issue is in our best interests. Education, rehabilitation and working with offenders in the community have been demonstrated to reduce the rate of reoffending, meaning fewer career criminals and less crime. When so much money is invested in prisoners, failing to change their behaviours is a missed opportunity.

To be tough on the causes of crime, we have to tackle some of the biggest sources of inequality in our country today. Overwhelmingly, the prison population is made up of people who have grown up at a socioeconomic disadvantage, who have not succeeded in gaining qualifications at schools, or who have spent time in care. There is a two-way door between the poorest and most vulnerable people in society and those in prison.

The Labour party a clear voice on the issues underlying criminality and on the state of the UK’s prisons. That is why we have launched the Labour Campaign for Prison Reform this week. The campaign will aim to put prison reform and criminal justice on the agenda for the Labour party, raising awareness of mental health and substance abuse issues in prisons, and the need to rehabilitate offenders.

The campaign will commission research and policy analysis, work with MPs, peers, Labour members, as well as prisoners and their families to make the party’s voice heard on this issue. We’ll be running events, policy forums and discussions on the issue over the coming months. We look forward to seeing decisive action on the issue from the Labour party, because, for our prison system and our society, the cost of inaction is too high.

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Gabriel Gavin and Tyrone Steele are members of the Labour party

You can sign up to the Labour Campaign for Prison Reform at www.prisonreform.co.uk. Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LCPReform/ or on Twitter at @LCPReform

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