Overcrowding, staff shortages and a deteriorating infrastructure are having a ‘profound impact on the ability of prisons to deliver rehabilitation’, according to a new report from the House of Commons Justice Committee. The situation risks undermining ‘the very purpose of imprisonment – to reduce reoffending’, it states.
Around 80 per cent of all offending in England and Wales is reoffending, the document points out, while half of prisoners are not involved in any education or work while in prison – despite the high levels of need. The report comes two weeks after the committee’s damning review of the ‘endemic’ drugs crisis in the prison estate.
There was a ‘widespread failure’ to meet the statutory minimum for time spent outside the cell, the new report says, with many prisoners locked in their cells for 22 hours or more each day, exacerbating the crises of poor mental health and disengagement. ‘Purposeful activity – including education, work and offending behaviour programmes – is central to rehabilitation yet it is inconsistently delivered and often deprioritised’, it says, while high staff turnover and poor recruitment processes are also contributing to a culture that hinders rehabilitation.
Half of prisons reported concerns around access to drugs and ‘increasing numbers of “under the influence” incidents requiring healthcare intervention’, the report adds, with widespread use of spice, heroin, cocaine, nitazenes and ketamine. HM Inspectorate of Prisons has previously stated that drugs were now ‘undermining every aspect of prison life’.
The state of disrepair – with ‘dilapidated buildings and broken infrastructure’ – also limits access to rehabilitative spaces and possibly violates human rights legislation, the Justice Committee says, with the maintenance backlog now estimated at £1.8bn. The sentencing review by former justice secretary David Gauke, published earlier this year, said that the levels of overcrowding had brought the prison system ‘dangerously close to total collapse’.
The government needs to set out how it will ensure that rehabilitation is not compromised, the committee stresses, alongside how it intends to manage demand and supply in the country’s prisons. Women in prison are also being failed, it says, with the system ‘not providing even basic support’.
‘Prison rehabilitation and efforts to break the cycle of reoffending aren’t working and cannot succeed in a system which is facing critical pressures on so many fronts,’ said committee chair Andy Slaughter MP. ‘The committee’s report reveals an overcrowded, short staffed, crumbling prison estate where the long-term focus on rehabilitation is often lost in an over-stretched environment which is grappling day to day to function. Capacity issues are leading to prisoners languishing for 22 hours a day in cells as the remand population grows and reoffending rates remain stubbornly high.
‘It cannot be right that those that do choose to engage in rehabilitative activities are worse off due to the prisons’ failure, and their limited access to time out of cell is reduced to choosing between a shower, a hot meal or fresh air,’ he continued. ‘Ministers must act fast to fix the basics and give greater attention to purposeful rehabilitation programmes across jails. Continuing with a cyclical system in crisis mode which offers little real opportunity to turn around prisoners’ lives is a false economy.’
Ending the cycle of reoffending – part one: rehabilitation in prisons available here