Amid the numerous historic appointments in his cupboard, the brand new prime minister Keir Starmer made one notably noteworthy announcement: James Timpson to change into minister for prisons, parole and probation. Timpson shouldn’t be a politician however the head of the key-cutting and shoe restore firm of the identical title. He was additionally the CEO of the Jail Reform Belief and a well known determine inside jail reform circles.
The phrases rehabilitation and resettlement have been thrown round by previous governments, however with little work to show them into observe. Because of this, UK prisons are actually at a breaking level of overcrowding.
Timpson’s appointment has been met with unbridled enthusiasm from jail reform advocates. We are going to hopefully get to see what it means for somebody who actually understands the worth of rehabilitation to method this function.
He’s recognized for visiting prisons in individual regularly to interview prisoners nearing launch for a job in his agency. This can be a enterprise technique, not a gimmick – Timpson says that one in 9 of his workforce is a former offender, and that “it’s good. They’re gifted, they’re loyal and so they work laborious.”
However how will he method jail reform for the entire nation?
Chatting with Channel 4 Information earlier this yr, Timpson stated that in his view solely a 3rd of individuals in jail really wanted to be there. Others, he stated, can be higher off with psychological well being help, whereas jail for girls is principally a catastrophe.
He added that within the Netherlands the jail inhabitants halved, emphasising that radically decreasing the jail inhabitants shouldn’t be unattainable.
With colleagues within the Netherlands I lately studied this phenomenon. Between 2005 and 2015 the Dutch jail inhabitants was certainly lowered by 44%. A lot was to do with a drop in severe crime which led to fewer folks going to courtroom, and ending up in jail. However shorter sentences are additionally a part of the image, as are alternate options to jail, and extra particularly tailor-made psychological well being help for these offenders who want it.
Closing prisons is feasible
Within the Netherlands, there may be widespread acceptance of the truth that typically a jail sentence does extra hurt than good. A survey in 2014 discovered widespread acceptance for suspended sentences within the nation. This appears not like the discourse in England and Wales, the place heavy sentencing is extra broadly thought to be an answer to crime and dysfunction.
This strategy of decarceration led to many prisons being closed or repurposed. And it prompted little or no social disquiet. The federal government did its modelling after which cautiously went forward with its programme of jail closures. Essentially the most vocal towards jail closures have been commerce unions, understandably frightened about jail officers shedding their jobs, and once in a while threatening authorized motion.
There’s nothing notably distinctive about jail populations falling. As I focus on in my forthcoming e-book, jail numbers have massively dropped even in Russia, which practically halved its jail price in a decade. Additionally the US, well-known for its excessive jail charges, has seen a notable drop in its jail price (some 14% since 2018).
Whereas jail charges are dropping in lots of nations, some stubbornly refuse to comply with this development and the UK is one in all them. Consultants seek advice from this as penal populism: politicians implementing harsh insurance policies that they assume the general public will like, quite than following the proof that harsh sentences remedy little and perpetuate social issues.
Jail populations can go down: the sky gained’t fall in and governments don’t essentially topple both. Like within the Netherlands, crime has dropped within the UK. Nevertheless the intention to punish extra severely and to construct extra prisons to accommodate that continues to be the everyday response, equivalent to by the then justice secretary Dominic Raab in 2022.
Learn extra:
Jail numbers set to rise 24% in England and Wales — it is going to make society much less protected, no more
A promising perspective
After 14 years of Conservative rule, Timpson’s feedback are greater than refreshing. They sign a really completely different intent such because the aforementioned Raab, whose reply was at all times to construct extra prisons.
They arrive at a time when jail overcrowding in Scotland is resulting in acute issues (with a whole bunch of prisoners probably launched early) and prisons in England are days away of being actually full.
Prisons are in disaster, and have been for a really very long time. A dedication to radically cut back the jail inhabitants can be an actual development break for the UK, the place jail populations have been projected to extend by 25% to over 100,000.
We now have an unorthodox jail minister who could shift the dial in our use of prisons. In his February interview, Timpson was clear that jail coverage doesn’t simply change. “I feel we want a authorities that’s courageous”, he stated. He’s now ready to indicate that bravery in observe. To be truthful, he has already proven it by tangibly enhancing the lifetime of some 1,500 prisoners via work.
Can he now overhaul a system that holds over 87,000? A forehead overwhelmed and overstretched jail system shall be anxious to seek out out.
