'Making prison work, once and for all'
It’s been more than 20 years since Michael Howard declared that 'prison works'. Since then, there have been extensive debates about whether he was right, whether our sentencing guidelines are appropriate, and which steps we need to take to reduce crime.
As it stands, the numbers suggest the system isn’t working. The prison population of England and Wales is 85,641, compared to 44,246 in 1993. Reoffending rates are 25.4 per cent. And according to the National Audit Office, reoffending costs us the equivalent of staging another Olympic Games every year.
So what can we do about it? Well, to quote another famous saying from 1990s politics: education, education, education. 2016 has got to be the year we talk seriously about skills development for high-risk populations, in prisons and after prison.
"We’ve got to correct the misunderstanding that educating prisoners is a reward for committing a crime. It’s not."
Luckily, in the current Justice Secretary, we’ve got a champion. Michael Gove may have raised more than a few heartrates while at the Department for Education, but hiscurrent agenda of upskilling prisoners is certainly to be commended.
In September, Mr Gove announced a review into prison education, led by Dame Sally Coates. At the time, he said that it was key to equip prisoners with the skills they need to be employable.
To me that’s common sense, given that only 53 per cent of the prison population have any qualifications, compared to 85 per cent of the working-age population.
Prisoners are some of society’s most marginalised and vulnerable people, and many were let down by the education system as children. Obviously, there are dangerous criminals who belong behind bars, but there are others who, with the right rehabilitation and support, could go on to make a positive contribution to society. Making sure they have the skills to work rather than revert to crime is at the core of that.
Unfortunately some of the public prefers the ‘lock ‘em up; throw away the key’ mentality. After reports that Gove was considering bringing tablets into prisons – which the Ministry of Justice is looking into, but not confirmed – a newspaper letter writer commented that they’d only recently been able to afford an iPad. "I have never committed a crime," they wrote. "Perhaps that is where I have gone wrong".
Read the full article from Chris Jones, chief executive of the City & Guilds Group>
