Two must read reports this week giving voice to the bleak experiences of men, women and children locked up in prisons during the pandemic. Powerful interviews by HM Inspectorate of Prisons evidence the decline in prisoners’ emotional, psychological, and physical well-being due to more than nine months spent by most in conditions that the Prison Reform Trust say match solitary confinement. The reports are an important counterweight to an emerging narrative suggesting the “performance of the prison system compares favourably with that of other institutions in the UK and other prison systems internationally.”
There are recommendations, particularly from PRT about what staff can do to mitigate
some of the negative impacts of restrictions- by taking an interest in the needs of each
person as an individual, giving people time to talk through the effects of the
quarantine regime, and helping people fill their time meaningfully. The
Inspectorate want to see action “to maintain the few positives derived from the
pandemic, such as video calling, and to make sure that prisons are prepared to
restore activity as soon as it is safe”. Neither report mentions the idea of
compensating prisoners by reducing the length of time they spend in custody.
The Chair of the Sentencing Council was unable to tell the
Justice Committee last week what impact COVID was having on sentencing but was confident that every sentencer in the
country “ is well aware” of its effects within prisons and on community
sentences. Given the Council’s aim of improving consistency, it was perhaps
surprising that Lord Justice Holroyde should tell MPs “it is for each sentencer
in each individual case to decide what weight to give that factor”. Encouragingly,
he felt that the pandemic may be a very powerful factor against a custodial
sentence in cases on the cusp of prison. But for people facing long terms, “it
is of less significance because it is, in the end, expected to be something
that will pass, even if it is going on longer than expected”.
Given the additional hardships facing prisoners of all
kinds, there is a strong case for reductions in jail terms served across the
board, including for existing prisoners. In the Australian state of Victoria, eligible
prisoners have had their prison
terms commuted by one day for every day of significant restrictions they have
faced. So called “Emergency Management Days”
-a longstanding way of maintaining order and safety in prisons- have been applied
to almost 5,000 prisoners out of a population of 7,000.
Such a response would be well received by prisoners here – an example of so-called procedural justice which could increase the extent to which they view people in authority as legitimate and worthy of respect. It could help reduce – a little at least- the sense of hopelessness and helplessness which inspectors saw becoming engrained among the prisoners they interviewed.
No doubt, it would be less well received by right wing press and politicians , who have opposed
the Victorian initiative. Here, it would
probably require legislation.
But given what Chief Inspector Charlie Taylor describes as the unprecedented scale
of restrictions on prisoners’ lives, a sentence reduction scheme along these lines would be well justified. As one of the prisoners told Taylor’s team about his experience inside, “there’s no progression, it’s just
counting the days.” He and others should have fewer of them to count.
