Review of the Year (2) Prisons

Prisons minister Rory Stewart said today he wished he could lock MPs in the Commons chamber until they produced a positive consensus on Brexit. On reflection, yet another 650-place inner city Victorian jail is probably the last thing he needs in his day job- much as the public might at present support his sentiment. 

From the start of his tenure in January, when faced with explaining piles of rubbish, vermin infestations and degrading cell conditions at HMP Liverpool, Stewart and his boss David Gauke have certainly not ducked the challenge of trying to repair a ravaged prison estate, sensibly eschewing the high-flown rhetoric of their predecessors in favour of a back-to-basics campaign.  

At year end, Stewart told the Justice Committee he believed there are green shoots. Sadly, three weeks earlier, the Chief Inspector of Prisons told  a different tale. In July, Peter Clarke’s Annual Report had documented conditions which “have no place in an advanced nation in the 21st century.” By November, Clarke had seen nothing to give him optimism that any significant corner has been turned. “The violence figures are going in the wrong direction. We still see far too many drugs destabilising prisons. As to living conditions, I have not seen significant improvement in the prisons we inspect”.  

Of course, there should be improvements over time as staff numbers, so recklessly reduced earlier in the decade, increase and the new recruits that stick with it gain experience and confidence. The Inspectorate’s new Independent Reviews of Progress will hopefully document a more positive picture than we’ve seen in 2018- what Her Majesty might call an annus horribilis for her Prison and Probation Service.

Not surprisingly a whirlwind of initiatives has been announced during the year- and some are on the way to implementation. The revamped personal officer scheme (OMIC) has promise and the extension of in cell telephones could improve family contact and cut demand for illicit mobiles. More opportunities for release on temporary licence and enhanced living conditions for prisoners who engage with the regime could encourage positive behaviour as part of incentive schemes to be developed by governors rather than hq . Whether this can add up to a promised "rehabilitative culture" within establishments remains to be seen.

Already underway is the installation of new technology security solutions- airport-style scanners, body worn cameras, and phone-blocking. Dogs are used to patrol landings even in Category B prisons. There is a crackdown on crime in prison, with more prosecutions and tougher penalties for assaults on prison staff. 

In a recent case a prisoner in a Segregation unit pleaded guilty to three counts of administering a noxious substance for three separate potting incidents. Horrible of course, and I don’t know the details - but are three 10-month sentences served consecutively the only way of holding prisoners to account for this kind of behaviour?  More needs to be done to identify what lies behind it. In an investigation I did (published this year), I found debt in prison can be seen as a stone best left unturned by staff .

It’s not clear what’s become of promised changes to security categorisation aimed at isolating gang leaders from their followers. The rollout of PAVA spray looks to be on its way despite the Prison Reform Trust’s well-argued call for a rethink. It's a measure which owes as much to placating the demands of an increasingly frustrated POA as it does to  the success of the pilot scheme. 

In terms of resettlement, the challenges remain enormous. The Employment Strategy reports success in attracting business interest in taking on ex offenders and post Brexit gaps in the labour market could offer opportunities to people coming out of prison. Measures have also been announced to reduce shocking levels of homelessness and rough sleeping though currently limited to pilot sites.  At HMP Leeds, half of prisoners said in the Inspectorate’s survey this year they weren’t getting the help they needed to sort out accommodation, employment and finance on release.  Somehow, the inspectors rated outcomes on rehabilitation and release planning as reasonably good. 

To help fix this, a relaunched Through The Gate service should see 500 extra resettlement staff across all resettlement prisons in England and Wales. Yet the Prison Service cant seem to find a way to avoid the basic difficulties, highlighted by NACRO , created by  releasing prisoners on a Friday. 

2018 saw confirmation that two new men’s prisons will be built at Wellingborough and Glen Parva, both to be run by the private sector. These will provide more than 3,000 places out of a promised total of 10,000 in the new for old estate modernisation programme  Despite the debacle at HMP Birmingham which saw the prison service step in to run it in August, the Government has announced a Prison Operator Services Framework competition suggesting that the private sector will continue to play an important role -under a Conservative government at any rate. The Justice Committee’s hearing into what went wrong at Birmingham is a poor substitute for the full independent assessment  recommended by Peter Clarke. The assertion by former Justice Minister Phillip Lee that “companies are currently ripping off taxpayers” also needs proper investigation.

June’s long awaited Female Offender Strategy thankfully scrapped plans for small women’s prisons but pledged only a small proportion of what they would have cost to fund alternative residential centres. 

Should we expect something similar in respect of plans for new men’s prisons in the light of lower than expected prison population projections and higher pressures on the MOJ budget? There is certainly  case for a much wider range of custodial, residential and community-based options than currently exist for those remanded for or convicted of offences.

Back in January, two weeks into the job, Rory Stewart told the Justice Committee that

“If I am not able in the next 12 months to achieve some improvements in making these prisons basically clean, with more fixed broken windows and fewer drugs, I am not doing my job, and I would like you to hold me to account for that in 12 months’ time”.

Sensibly he subsequently bought himself more time (until August 2019) and specified ten prisons on which to be judged. Its HMPPS Chief Michael Spurr who’ll be leaving in the New Year.  Will Stewart be following him out of the gate?

Review of the Year (1) : Sentencing and the Prison Population

The prison population ends the year more than two and a half thousand- one Titan prison worth -lower than it started. That’s partly down to January's revised procedure for Home Detention Curfew. More than 3,000 prisoners were at home on electronic tags last week, 40% more than 12 months ago.  The 3% fall in prison numbers (its almost 6% for women) also reflects a decline in those formally dealt with by the criminal justice system. These have fallen to a record low, with 1.61 million individuals prosecuted or given an out of court disposal in the year ending June 2018.

Falling prison rolls don’t mean courts have become more lenient. The custody rate for indictable offences increased by one percentage point, over the year to June, to 32%- it was 24% in 2010. Average sentence lengths have continued to rise, reaching more than 17 months. The average was 12.6 months a ten years ago. Offenders are more likely to receive an immediate custodial sentence for a knife and offensive weapon offence.

Tougher sentences may mean courts have been dealing with more serious or prolific offenders than previously, but they may also reflect the impact of sentencing guidelines. An independent review of the Sentencing Council published in April confirmed that two major guidelines -on burglary and assault- “have now been shown to have resulted in some unexpected increases in sentencing” which “is bound to create anxiety among civil liberties groups and some criminal justice organisations”. Since then the Council has found unanticipated increases for sexual assault and supplying class A drugs following the introduction of its guidelines -but some decreases or no impact on other offences. It's too early to know about the impact of its more recent guidelines, including the one on breach offences which risks a greater use of prison for offenders who fail to comply with alternatives.  

For offences which can only be dealt with by Magistrates- the least serious to come before the courts- the custody rate fell in the year to June 2018 (from 1.6% to 1.5%). Sentences of six months or less also fell very slightly as a proportion of all custodial sentences but still represent more than half of those imposed over the year. 2018 has seen a growing acceptance of the case for more radical steps to reduce short sentences thanks to the Revolving Doors shortsighted campaign whose main messages seem to have been accepted by ministers. Action has so far  been limited but there is surely scope for it. Of the 5,342 prisoners serving jail terms of less than 12 months at the end of March this year, 30% were for theft -including 985 cases of shoplifting (and 25 of theft or unauthorised taking of a pedal cycle). 50 people each day are sent to prison for a period of a month or less. 

Replacing all short sentences would have a welcome but limited impact on the overall size of the prison population which is largely driven by sentence lengths and release decisions. There is a risk that  changes to the Parole system introduced in the wake of the Worboys case could see serious offenders spending longer inside whether they need to or not. 

In the longer term, the technical job of sentencing should get easier if the Law Commission's consolidated Code is put into law.  Its very troubling that the Lord Chief Justice should report that "on too many occasions, an unlawful sentence is imposed in the Crown Court & the mistake only noticed by a lawyer in the Court of Appeal Office when an appeal (on other grounds) is lodged."

Politically, prisons Minister Rory Stewart warned in June that “as we give more voice to citizens and to victims, almost inevitably we are going to face pressure…for longer and more brutal sentences”.  The Sentencing Council has appointed an external agency to examine issues of public confidence in sentencing, which will hopefully help find ways of avoiding Mr Stewart’s dystopian future.