Counting the Days

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.