The Tories big standby, when all else failed, was that they were tough on crime, but didn't particularly care about its causes. The images of Willie Whitelaw promising 'boot camp' style regimes in which life would be 'conducted at a brisk tempo' stick in my mind. The policy produced fitter criminals!

No one ever accused Kenneth Clarke of being on the hang 'em and flog 'em wing of the Tory Party, indeed the Torygraph was predicting disaster as early as 15 May 2010:

Consult the Tory manifesto and you will find a promise to build more prison places, and thereby avoid a repeat of Labour’s early release of 80,000 criminals to reduce overcrowding. The Conservatives think that prison works ...

The Lib Dems ... say “the evidence shows” that community sentences are better at reducing reoffending than short prison sentences. So they don’t just want to release more criminals early in order to put them on community sentences – they would rather not send them to prison at all ... [Tel]

The Torygraph was right: K Clarke adopted LibDem ideas, not because of any commitment to reform, but quite simply because he had to find a saving of 23% of the MinJus budget.   
[BBC]    [FL]

Not fit for purpose: crisis in Britain's prisons worsens

Overcrowding in prison "warehouses" is causing violence behind bars as tensions soar among inmates, prison officers warned last night.

New figures show that the population of Britain's jails has jumped by 1,000 in the past three weeks ...

The Independent disclosed last month that officers had warned the Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke that the combined pressure of prison closures, budget cuts and a shortage of officers risked riots in jails.

The prison population in England and Wales stood at 87,668 yesterday – a rise of 407 since the previous Friday and more than 1,000 above the total just three weeks ago.

Jails are 1,730 below capacity and, at the current rate, the country's prisons could be full by early March.

Two new jails, in south-east London and in the West Midlands, are due to open that month in an attempt to relieve the pressure.

The sharp increase over the last five months has been mainly fuelled by convictions after the August riots, with 2,200 fewer people behind bars before the disturbances ...

Ind  28 Jan 2012    Coalition Log    Thatcherite Britain    Whither Britain? Log

Marginalised by 'Standortkonkurrenz'

Child offenders 'dumped in prison' as cuts erode social care

The Centre for Social Justice warns that a worrying dynamic has developed in which courts and prisons are effectively being used to "parent children".

A report published tomorrow, utilising input from senior police officers, magistrates and youth justice officials, calls for a dramatic cut in the 5,000 children currently given custodial sentences a year, claiming too many are imprisoned for relatively minor offences ...

The report concludes that the imprisonment of young people between the ages of 10 and 17 in England and Wales is too high and should be restricted to the "critical few" guilty of serious crimes and posing a serious public threat.

Instead, too many youngsters are appearing before youth courts for trivial reasons with some effectively prohibited from certain types of future employment following minor incidents such as "playground fights".

The biggest concern, however, is the way the youth justice system is increasingly expected to sweep up cases that other departments, such as social services, are failing to address ...

Obs  15 Jan 2012    Coalition & Children    

1.2M CRIMINALS GET BENEFITS

"Ensuring former offenders are doing a decent day’s work is the best way to keep them from the wrong side of the law"

BRITAIN’S broken benefits system was exposed last night after official figures showed one in four jobless welfare claimants is a criminal.

Experts warned taxpayers risk “bank- rolling career criminals” as statistics revealed 1.23million people on unemployment handouts have been cautioned or convicted of offences in the last five years.

Figures also show that 33 per cent on Job- Seeker’s Allowance – 400,000 people – have records of offending over the same period.

The figures confirming the link between claiming benefits and law-breaking were disclosed last night by the Department for Work and Pensions and led to attacks from critics of Britain’s bloated welfare state.

Robert Oxley, campaign manager of the Tax- Payers’ Alliance, said:

“Ministers can’t allow individuals to remain on benefits indefinitely.

"Ensuring former offenders are doing a decent day’s work is the best way to keep them from the wrong side of the law.

“Career criminals shouldn’t be bankrolled by taxpayers.

"Help like Jobseeker’s Allowance is for people who are looking for a leg up on the job ladder, not thieves looking for a leg up into people’s back gardens.”

A blitz is planned by ministers in the New Year to stop offenders from habitually switching between prison and benefit scrounging.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said:

“This is the first time any Government has done detailed analysis of the link between offending and the welfare state and it paints a truly alarming picture.

“This underlines why Britain needs a rehabilitation revolution, and particularly to help former offenders into sustained employment.

"We will be giving more details of our plans shortly.”

Daily Express  28 Dec 2011

Third of unemployed are convicted criminals

The first detailed analysis of the criminal backgrounds of benefit claimants show that 33 per cent of Britons claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance have a criminal record.

Many tens of thousands more criminals are also claiming other out-of-work benefits such as disability allowances.

The official analysis ... found that 26 per cent of the country’s 4.9 million benefit claimants have been cautioned or convicted in the past decade ...

Ministers ... are now poised to unveil specialist work programmes for offenders to prevent them becoming dependent on the state for life after a conviction.

Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, is expected to announce intensive training programmes for convicts in the new year.

Employers are also likely to be offered “payments for results” to return former criminals to work ...

Tel  28 Dec 2011
Displacement Activity    Life on Benefits ...    The Work Programme

Chris Grayling     The Myth of Full Employment

Unemployment 'set to rise in 2012'

UK jobs outlook is the 'worst for 20 years'

Number of job-hunters chasing every post jumps to 23

UK faces bleak 2012

Young jobseekers told to work without pay or lose unemployment benefits

Britain will be back in recession this winter, warns OECD

More people behind bars in Britain this Christmas than ever before

A total of 87,393 people are in jails in England and Wales, 567 fewer than last week but almost 4,000 more than there were a year ago, according to Prison Service figures ...

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

"Unless government can succeed in reserving prison for serious and violent offenders, the cost to the taxpayer will rocket in 2012.

"Meanwhile, very many people are behind bars who should be taking responsibility for themselves and looking after their families, doing unpaid work or making amends to victims and, in many cases, engaging in treatment for drug or alcohol abuse or getting the mental healthcare they need." ...

Gdn  23 Dec 2011

Prisons and probation

Punish the feral rioters, but address our social deficit too

It would be interesting to learn more about Ken Clarke's perceptions of the 'mainstream' values of our society, since the evidence suggests that it is broadly Thatcherite.

Full employment would be a useful weapon in your armoury, but the sad fact is that even in the years of the Brown 'boom', unemployment was around the 1.4m mark whereas, during the 1950s and 60s, unemployment was around the 3 per cent mark, or lower.    [BBC]     [Pol]

Clearly those 'utopian' figures are not going to return, thanks largely to the Thatcherite-neoliberalism which Ken Clarke's party was only too eager to adopt in the 1970s.

Having created an economic and social 'deficit' Clarke, Pickles, IDS, Osborne, and Cameron are raging against the consequences of their choice.

They are clearly not prepared to spend the money on the penal system to make rehab viable, rather the US system of 'bang 'em up' is all that it is financed to undertake.

So, no use complaining about a defective penal system, Ken, when the cuts are taking it in the wrong direction.

And, btw Ken, community sentencing is no cheapo alternative.

Above all, a strategy to get the unemployed back to work should be the biggest game in town.

Building more houses may not be the main road to 'rebalancing' the economy away from fiat currency banking.     [TPR]

... reform can't stop at our penal system alone.

The general recipe for a productive member of society is ... about having a job, a strong family, a decent education and, beneath it all, an attitude that shares in the values of mainstream society.

What is different now is that a growing minority of people in our nation lack all of those things and, indeed, have substituted an inflated sense of expectation for a commitment to hard graft.

That's why reform is so important and the reason we have established the communities and victims panel to explore what lessons can be learned, from the riots and the civic action to clear up the damage.

We need to continue to put rocket boosters on our plans to fix not just criminal justice but education, welfare and family policy.

Addressing unemployment means making progress on the economy by getting the deficit under control and pressing ahead with welfare reform and work programmes.

Building stronger families means gripping the 120,000 most problematic ones and really addressing their problems, not leaving them in touch with, but untouched by, dozens of different agencies.

A decent education means liberalising our schools system so that more students can benefit from high standards and discipline.

The coalition has a renewed mission: tackling the financial deficit, for certain.

But also, importantly, addressing the appalling social deficit that the riots have highlighted.

Gdn  05 Sept 2011    Coalition Log    Full Employment?    Riots

A Very Neoliberal Catastrophe     Family Breakdown     'Reserve Army'

Employment blackspots revealed

Unemployed offenders face tougher work in the community

Unemployed offenders face a full week of unpaid work, including the possibility hard manual labour, under plans to toughen community penalties as an alternative to prison.

Instructions will be issued to courts by the Ministry of Justice, urging them to make sure unemployed offenders sentenced to the "community payback" programme work a minimum of 28 hours over a four-day week.

They will spend the fifth day looking for work or face losing their jobseekers' allowance ...

The more intensive scheme will also require offenders to start work within seven days of sentencing instead of the two weeks it currently takes following a court appearance ...

The scheme is run by the probation service and the public can nominate jobs to be undertaken by offenders.

A ministry spokesman said the work usually included improving public areas by picking up litter, cleaning graffiti, and maintaining parks and green spaces.

But offenders can also be required to undertake hard labour such as working on a community farm ...

The prisons and probation minister, Crispin Blunt, said the scheme would encourage unemployed offenders back into the routine of hard and meaningful work ...

Harry Fletcher of Napo, the probation union, said :

" ... the scheme will only be viable if it is properly resourced, doesn't put council workers out of work and if offenders are fit to carry out the tasks."

Gdn  24 Aug 2011    Coalition Log    The Work Programme    

Riots: Now governors warn of prison time bomb

The total number of prisoners yesterday hit a new record of 86,654 – up 723 on the previous high set last Friday, and leaving less than 1,500 spaces left in the system.

Geoff Dobson, deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust, added:

"The rapid increase in prison numbers means that sections of our prison estate are becoming human warehouses, doing little more than banging people up in overcrowded conditions, with regimes that are hard pressed to offer any employment or education.

"The likelihood is that for some first time offenders this will provide a fast track to a criminal career."

A report released by the trust last year found that 60 percent of those serving sentences under a year go on to re-offend ...

Ind  20 Aug 2011    Coalition Log    Riots    

Probation officers spend 75% of time not dealing with offenders

The MPs say they accept that probation officers have to do a certain amount of work that does not involve dealing directly with offenders but are "staggered" to find it can be as much as 75%.

"No one would suggest that it would be acceptable for teachers (who also have to do preparatory work and maintain paperwork) to spend three-quarters of their time not teaching," say the MPs.

"The value which really effective probation officers can add comes primarily from their direct contact with offenders." ...

The MPs want to see an external review of the future of Noms, saying its creation has not led to a joined-up treatment of offenders and it has not proved itself proficient at handling national contracts such as for bail accommodation and facilities management.

Harry Fletcher of Napo, the probation union, said:

"The report confirms that Noms has been a major problem from the start.

"Napo warned in 2004 that Noms would be a bureaucratic nightmare.

"It is scandalous that probation staff now spend 75% of their time on form-filling and responding to centrally driven emails.

"Even Daniel Sonnex, who brutally murdered two French students three years ago was seen for just 20 minutes a week ...

Gdn  27 July 2011    Coalition Log

NOMS    Reforming the Regime

Key probation services to be put out to tender

The 35 chief officers of probation have been told they need to examine the "potential for core probation services" to be put up for competition.

Michael Spurr, the chief executive of the National Offender Management Service ... said it was hoped the competition process would also ensure that those probation functions remaining in the public sector were delivered with clear benefits in terms of costs, efficiency, quality and risk management ...

Harry Fletcher of Napo, the probation union, said:

"Probation services do not lend themselves to the normal laws of supply and demand, it is unclear who the customer is.

"The government has little if any understanding of how complex work with offenders is and how demanding supervision can be " ...

Gdn  12 July 2011    Coalition Log    Outsourcing

Marginalised    

The mental health ward at Lancaster Farms Young Offenders Unit is to be closed

Staff on the mental health ward, which serves young prisoners who are suffering a mental health crisis or at risk of or who have attempted suicide, are NHS staff although the centre is within the prison itself.

Lancaster Farms houses some of the most troubled and damaged young men in the North of England.

Many of them are care leavers and most have come from abusive backgrounds.

They have committed or are on remand for serious crimes. About 20 jobs will go.

Gdn  27 June 2011    Coalition Log    Cutting the Deficit    'Prozac Nation'    'We're all in it together'

Fewer jail sentences for those carrying knives

Four out of five criminals caught with a knife are not being jailed immediately, new figures show.

Home Secretary Theresa May has said the Government is "absolutely clear" that anybody convicted of possessing a knife should expect to be sent to prison, and judges have been told to consider a 12-week starting point for the lowest-level offence.

But just 19 per cent of those caught in possession of a knife between January and March were jailed, down from 23 per cent in the same period last year and the year before.

Instead, one in three was given a community sentence, with the proportion up to 33 per cent from 31 per cent last year and 30 per cent in 2009.

Of the 5,228 offenders caught in possession of a knife or offensive weapon in the first quarter of the year, just 1,014 were jailed and the proportion receiving longer sentences also fell.

A total of 327, or 32 per cent, were sentenced to more than six months in jail down from 34 per cent last year.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: "For adults convicted of unlawful knife possession, the sentencing guidelines are clear: the starting point in court is a custodial sentence.

"Sentencing in individual eases is a matter for our independent courts, as only they have the full facts in front of them."

I  03 June 2011    FYB Log    Knife Crime, Street Gangs    The Self as 'Interactive Moment'

Knife Crime

Why our children carry guns

Why young men carry knives

Sara Payne criticises Forensic Science Service move

The Home Office ... has decided to break up the service, which makes an operating loss of £2m per month.

Ms Payne, a chief advocate for the Phoenix Foundation, which campaigns on child abuse issues, said the decision should not be guided by money.

She said: "As a victims' advocate, I can tell you that 90% of most current sex offender cases rely on forensic services to prove their cases.

"Over the years we've worked with thousands of victims who wouldn't have got justice if it were not for the highly-regarded FSS.

"Roy Whiting, and countless other offenders I can think of, would not be in jail if it were not for the FSS."

She accused the government of "betraying the British public and cheating them out of the justice they not only deserve, but agree to pay for".

"Why has there been no public consultation? Why doesn't the government ask the public if they mind paying £2m a month to get something this important right?," she added.

Ms Payne told the BBC News Channel she was concerned that its break-up could result in a "postcode lottery" for victims of crime and that it could be the "thin end of the wedge", leading to a privatised judicial system.

She added: "Justice shouldn't and doesn't come at a price. It shouldn't be about who can do it cheaper, it should be about who can do it better." ...

BBC NEWS  28 Dec 2010    A Moral Indifference Log    Cutting the Deficit

Justice system 'threatened by closure of Forensic Science Service'

Sara Payne attacks forensic service break-up

Forensic Science Service to close

Forensic Science Service to be wound up

Ken Clarke to drop Tory knife jail pledge

Mr Clarke was asked whether people convicted of carrying a knife could get a caution or community service.

He told the BBC: "We're not setting out absolute tariffs for particular things.

"What happens is pundits or newspapers suggest levels for particular forms of crimes ... Parliament in its wisdom enacts them - it doesn't work.

"Anybody who is guilty of serious knife crime will go to prison but I'm not in favour of absolute rules.

"I'm in favour of actually allowing judges to see how nasty the offender is, see what the offence was, see what the best way of protecting the public from him is."

"I'm more interested in actually, will we stop this man doing this again in future?"

Mr Clarke said he wanted to drive down inmate numbers through a "rehabilitation revolution" to reduce the numbers of people who re-offend after leaving prison.

He said that meant tackling problems like drug and alcohol abuse, mental health and lack of jobs for ex-offenders.

The justice secretary says he wants private firms to be paid by results to run rehabilitation programmes ...

BBC NEWS  06 Dec 2010    

Prison system failing to tackle reoffending

Prisons: A 'rehabilitation revolution'?

Ken Clarke plans tough changes to community service – run privately

Justice ministers are looking at proposals to turn community sentences into intensive programmes that run five days a week and are enforceable by the withdrawal of benefits, in an attempt to create alternatives to prison that are perceived as credible by the public.

Facing big budget cuts, Kenneth Clarke, the justice secretary, will publish a green paper on sentencing in the next fortnight which will introduce new private agencies, as opposed to probation services, to enforce tougher community orders.

Clarke is eager to reduce the number of people serving short sentences, and Downing Street is determined that the alternative of community sentences should be seen to be tougher ...

Guardian  26 Nov 2010    Corporate Public 'Services'

Prison system failing to tackle reoffending

Young prisoners beaten in 'sheeting' attacks

So, what happened to rehab?

The practice, known as "sheeting", is seen as horseplay by some staff at Forest Bank prison, in Salford, Greater Manchester, but the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Nick Hardwick, condemned it as "serious bullying" which needs to be stopped.

"A very vulnerable young man who spoke to us described it as him being tied up inside a duvet cover and 'battered' every night," he said.

"A number of prisoners talked to us about 'sheeting' and these were incidents that the prison had recorded on a number of occasions.

"A prison officer on a wing described it to us as horseplay. Prison management had limited knowledge of it.

"We are satisfied this does occur and needs to be stopped." ...

Geoff Dobson, deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "Prison staff have a duty of care to all those held in custody and must be vigilant to ensure the well-being of vulnerable prisoners.

"These examples of intimidation and violence and the failure of staff to deal with them effectively, in what is an otherwise good local prison, are unacceptable and require immediate action."

Independent  09 Nov 2010    Moral Indifference Log

Clarke 'planning to close six prisons'

A spokeswoman for the MoJ responded:

"We expect that by the end of the spending review period, the number of prisoners will be around 3,000 lower than it is today - equivalent to 2008 levels.

"We are looking at the sentencing frameworks for adults and young offenders, as well as the full range of penalties available in the criminal justice system ... "

... Chief Inspector of Prisons Nick Hardwick told The Times that the treatment of some inmates in prisons in England and Wales was "a disgrace.

"You look at the conditions some people are in and what's happening to them and the lack of care they are getting and you think: 'This is just a disgrace'," said Mr Hardwick.

He said that prisoners spent too much time doing nothing and too little attention was given to stopping them returning to a life of crime after release.

Even in the workshops which are supposed to provide them with purposeful activity, "there's a lot of sitting around playing cards", he said ...

Independent  06 Nov 2010    Cutting the Deficit

George Osborne takes spending axe to prisons and legal aid

Leaked documents show Ministry of Justice will lose 30% of budget in comprehensive spending review

Massive cuts of around 30% to the justice system, which will dramatically reduce the number of people in prison, slash legal aid in divorce and family law cases, and see the closure of more than 150 courts across England, will be unveiled this week ...

One source with experience of the Ministry of Justice said it was impossible to see how that amount could be raised without selling off large parts of the prison estate ...

Observer  17 Oct 2010    Autumn Spending Review

Prison governors call for release of 2,500 inmates

The latest Ministry of Justice figures show that in July there were 6,130 serving indefinite IPP sentences, of whom 2,850 were being held well beyond their "tariff point" – the minimum date after which the parole board can authorise their release.

So far only 94 have been released.

The parole board can authorise the release of an IPP prisoner only if he has completed the offender behaviour programmes specified by the judge in each case, but the latest figures show that 2,120 IPP prisoners had not finished one course by July this year.

McLennan-Murray, the former governor of Lewes prison, said the association's warning last year about the ineffectiveness of short sentences had triggered much media comment:

"Now 12 months on, we have a coalition government which is looking to use community punishments instead of short sentences.

"Potentially, this could reduce the prison population by about 7,000 ... " ...

Guardian  12 Oct 2010    

Kenneth Clarke

Prisons and probation

Private Firms To Turn Prisoners From Crime

A new scheme being trialled in Peterborough is allowing a private company to fund programmes to keep short term prisoners from re-offending.

If, after six years, the company has managed to cut the re-offending rate by at least 7.5%, it will make a profit.

Initially, 3,000 prisoners at HMP Peterborough will take part in the Social Impact Bond scheme.

The Government is already looking to use the same method in other areas of social policy.

Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has championed the initiative, which initially will cost the taxpayer nothing.

Mr Clarke told Sky News: "The key thing is they get a return if they achieve results.

"We should concentrate on actually paying people if they can reduce the level of crime, by reducing the rate at which people re-offend."

The pilot scheme will cost investment group Social Finance £5m over six years ...

uk.news.yahoo     Corporate Public 'Services'

Rich to invest in scheme to cut prisoner reoffending rates

Social Finance

Third Sector

Tony Blair criticises coalition prison policies

Former prime minister Tony Blair has criticised the prison policies being pursued by the coalition government ...

... in an interview with the Telegraph, Mr Blair said there was a need to imprison "those who deserve to be there".

The former prime minister said "dysfunctional families who produce 14-year-old kids stabbing one another to death" are "making people's lives hell" and suggested Britain could learn from developing countries which "just don't accept" criminality ...

BBC NEWS  06 Sept 2010    Tony Blair

Jon Venables case: inquiry ordered into parole supervision

A curfew was imposed on Venables after he was arrested for a drunken fight in 2008. He was also found in possession of cocaine and was cautioned later that year.

It has also emerged that those who took the decision not to return Venables to custody for the offences may not have been aware of his real identity.

"The decision that was made at that time as to whether or not to charge him was made by people who didn't know his identity and indeed the same happened at his subsequent possession of cocaine," Diana Fulbrook, head of public protection for the Probation Chiefs' Association told Radio 4's Today programme.

"There was a decision made not to charge him because the evidence at the time wasn't clear who was actually involved in it," she added.

The ministry admitted that Jack Straw, then justice secretary, knew Venables had been arrested on both occasions in 2008 for cocaine possession and affray, but agreed with probation and police officials that he should not be recalled to prison.

Guardian  24 July 2010    

A System at Breaking Point

Jack Straw accused of passing buck over French student murders

Government wins probation battle

Justice Secretary plans 'radical' prison policy change

The justice system is going to be run on the same lines as the, er, 'welfare' system - the private sector is key to the plans, as is the £4bn cut in spending.

Criticising the growth of the prison population in England and Wales, he said there must be other penalties.

The new measures will involve paying private firms and voluntary groups according to how many prisoners they rehabilitate ...

But shadow home office minister David Hanson said Mr Clarke needed to back his ideas with a better prisons budget.

"Where Ken Clarke has a point is that there are people who go through the system who revolve through that door who have long-term drug, alcohol, employment problems - who need to be reformed to get back into society in a positive way," he said.

"But where I disagree with Mr Clarke is that it takes resources. And he is now planning to cut the resources to the justice department and to probation by 25% over the next four years."

BBC NEWS  30 June 2010

Clarke to slash £4bn prisons budget