BRitish jails are so bad that other countries have refused to extradite criminals here on the grounds that it is “inhuman”. That may still come as a small shock for a country that, after all, has a hidden habit that is considered self -standard.
But of course we are not, at least when it comes to prisons. Here are just a few more details from a recent report that gathered testimonies from the officers: the rooms were flooded by the “urine smell from the rodents”; Broken CCTV camera; floors falling on travel dangers; “Continued Legionella issues”; kitchen without heat for eight years; A cage without hot water since April 2022. It is so bad that some prisons are ordering prisoners to do the arrangements themselves.
Part of the problem is the privatized maintenance, criticized by the Prison Officers Association report. In 2015, it was outsource. A recent report by the National Audit Office has found that a quarter of prison areas did not meet the basic fire safety standards, and that the backlog of maintenance works has doubled in the last four years. It was estimated that all this would be worth £ 2.8bn in five years. But this is not the only reason for prisons is in such a state.
It all started with a steep increase in prison population – now higher than other countries in Western Europe. Maximum sentences, increasing persecution and swelling of people in remand means that over three decades the population has doubled to 86,000, and is now set to reach 100,000 in 2029. Since September, thousand -In thousands of prisoners have to set in advance, which will be held off a crisis. But only temporarily. By July, critical capacity can be reached again.
Many other prisoners led to the oversight, as space spending and officers were not preserved. Prisoners are jam into cells intended for one. When there are so many people in prison, they are more difficult to manage, and engage in activities that lead to rehabilitation. Instead of exercising, studying, working or working, almost four out of 10 inmates spend almost all day locked, irritating their cells, bored. Boredom leads to self -harm, drug use and violence. Violence is aggravated by the lack of staff, which means it can be quickly controlled. Between 2020 and 2023, the number of prisoners who attack each other grew by 57%. Staff attacks are now higher than any point before 2015.
This exacerbates the problem – it means that fewer people want to work in prisons in the first place, and current officials leave. Last week it was reported that a guard surrendered to his 20-year career after being kicked and stamped an inmate. There was a recent release of the most timely prison officials: in 2017, there were 11,100 guards with more than one decade experience. That fell to only 6,681. One of the four new recruits has left for one year. A survey suggests that things are worse: half of prison officials do not feel safe at work and almost 40% plan to leave the service over the next five years.
When the prisons are desperate for recruits, the standards decrease. Officials have now arrived after a few weeks of training, often doing online. And when staff is not prepared or not supported by the work they do, things are still getting a grimmer. A report found last week that four out of 10 inmates who took their own lives in caution declined with proper health care. Someone, confined for shoplift care, seek help and not eat or sleep on the days leading to his death, but a mental health clinic has not seen. The relatives described his treatment as “Medieval”.
And then there’s a final twist: Hellish, violent jails make prisoners less fit for the outside world. Reoffending is rising, and more people get shoveled in the prison system. Vice begins again.
What is the solution to all this? The most common way to retract the prison population is to reduce the length of the sentences. There is no point that gives criminals longer hours in jail if they spend it on getting more violent habits and not well in mind. But it will be difficult for doing to do. Politicians believe that any signs of softness in crime will be punished by voters. They are not wrong to worry – when asked, the public tends to say that the hunger is too rugged.
But politicians can underestimate the space for persuasion. It turns out that the view that we should be more difficult in crime is primarily reserved for violence, and, say, death by dangerous driving. Feel the less about theft, or the drug deal. Giving people more details about the guidelines in the meal tend to further weaken this stance. Presented in examples and case studies, the public is more inclined to think of judgment is not very enthusiastic, after all. We are also enthusiastic about the idea of rehabilitation.
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Perhaps the government should try a novel when it comes to dealing with the prison problem: Treat the public as if it were capable of thinking. The art of persuasion is lost in political fashion, but there is a clear case to do for shortening a few sentences. Can and should be done.
A tactic can talk about how much we pay for it all. The average cost of a prison area in 2022-2023 was £ 52,000. Another is to highlight the dangers of uninterrupted prisoners roaming the streets, ready to restore. The Netherlands managed to cut prison numbers, while keeping the crime low. There is only one chance that we can do the same.
Martha Gill is a observer columnist
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