By Talia Marie
Starmer’s Labour inherited a dire prison crisis. This was even before the summer right–wing riots had 1,280 people arrested for their part in the civil unrest caused, pushing prisons to the brink. The prisoner population in England and Wales has doubled over the last 30 years, despite crime rates falling substantially. This summer, at its lowest, there were only 83 prison spaces left in the UK. This shows the desperate need for a radical change. James Timpson was hired as the prisons minister, where his company Timpson’s notoriously supports former offenders’ rehabilitation by hiring ex–criminals. With only around 4,400 new spaces planned to be built, against an estimated 12,000 more criminals expected to be imprisoned during that time, it’s clear that the old system is outdated. Timpson believes that “So many people in prison, in my view, shouldn’t be there”, which sets the tone for the new government to take a fresh approach towards a more proactive form of punishment and rehabilitation.
In 2007, Texas faced a similar prison crisis, so Shabana Mahmood, the newly appointed justice minister, is looking to lead a similar approach, with plans to visit the US state later this year to see what the UK can adopt. Through its “smart sentencing”, Texas rewards good behaviour by reducing inmates’ jail time, tracked by a points–based system. Texas also looks at the underlying causes of offending, such as drugs and alcohol, aiming to increase points if prisoners take courses aimed at tackling misbehaviour caused by substance abuse. The Texan approach proved to work, where its prisoner population fell by 15% from 2007 to 2023. Reoffending rates over this period have also fallen by about 30%.
As part of the new emergency measures, the UK government allowed the early release of prisoners for “less serious” crimes, where they served 40% of their sentence instead of 50%. This includes burglars and shoplifters, fraudsters, rioters, and drug dealers, but doesn’t include sex offenders, serious violence offenders, terrorists, domestic abusers, stalkers, threats to national security, and other more serious crimes. However, it was reported that an error occurred where outdated legislation from 1997 had led to the false prosecution and release of 37 prisoners. Mahmood is working with the police to return those who have not been found. Although Starmer can’t directly be blamed for this concerning error, it’s not a good look for his bold policy plans to appear competent in the first few months of his leadership.
"This summer, at its lowest, there were only 83 prison spaces left in the UK. This shows the desperate need for a radical change."
The prison crisis is a deeply complex issue. Should the government simply increase the prison budget? Should workers be more incentivised to be trained to work in prisons to solve chronic understaffing issues? Should there be more focus on rehabilitation courses? Should more companies adopt Timpson’s approach and hire ex–offenders to reduce homelessness and re-offences? The truth is that priorities need to be made during the lengthy process of prison reform.
There is a third way, and that is to adopt a Scandinavian approach rather than a Texan approach. While Texas and the UK still focus on isolation and punishment in prisons, Scandinavia does it a different way. They see the loss of liberty and community as punishment enough and during the prison sentence, they try to make life as normal as possible so offenders can focus on making better choices of their own accord. In Helsinki, prisoners are even allowed to see their families, have a flat-screen TV, use a gym, wear their own clothes, and eat meals with the prison officers. Though this may sound uncomfortable, Finland only has an incarceration rate of 52 per 100,000 compared to England and Wales’ 143 per 100,000. However, I think it would be unrealistic to think that the UK could fully adopt a Scandinavian prison approach, because, minus funding issues, British attitudes just aren’t the same as Scandinavian ones, and there would be too much controversy from the public about prisoners “living in luxury”.
The Texan approach is certainly not bad and the early release method is a necessary short–term fix as prisons can’t be built overnight. We can only hope that the same mistake isn’t made again with the 37 wrongly prosecuted prisoners. Going forward, prisoners who aren’t a fatal threat need to spend their jail time getting ready to be functioning citizens of society, taking educational courses like the Texan system and having a place to stay after their release to have stability until they have a paying job where they can afford their own place.
However, in the long term, the UK need to tackle the root cause of crime. By finding the fiscal budget to invest in local communities, such as youth centres and youth workers, sports facilities, the arts, more teachers and smaller class sizes, maternity care, child poverty alleviation, meals vouchers, less will turn to criminal gangs as a last resort. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the Scandinavian countries have the highest happiness ratings and are also amongst the ones with the lowest crime ratings.
Starmer, Mahmood, Timpson, and many more leaders need to take inspiration from the best parts of each country’s prison systems to completely reform the UK’s, looking at the long–term, putting in place the infrastructure needed to fix the situation. I will be interested to hear what Mahmood takes away from her visit to Texas, to what extent they are inspired by its system, and what tone this sets for the next 5 years (at least) of the Labour government for the justice and prisons system.
Image: Flickr
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