An independent review to assess the long-term challenges facing prisons and recommend improvements to their effectiveness has been announced by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
The review will be led by former Conservative home secretary Amber Rudd and consider ‘a broad range’ of challenges including drugs, drones and other security risks, as well as issues like overcrowding, violence, self-harm and the physical condition of the prison estate. It will also look at international examples of good practice.
The aim is to identify ‘practical and deliverable’ options for reform and build a ‘robust evidence base’ to support future investment and decision-making. The review is expected to report by the end of the year.
‘The prison system faces ongoing and future challenges that are not widely understood, shaped by pressures across capacity, safety and decency, security and rehabilitation, as well as the age, condition and configuration of the prison estate,’ MoJ states. ‘While recent investment and action have mitigated some pressures, the underlying risks remain structural and long-term in nature.’
Last year saw the publication of the Independent review of prison capacity by former chief inspector of prisons Dame Anne Owers – which said that overcrowding had brought the system close to collapse on three separate occasions – as well as former justice secretary David Gauke’s Independent sentencing review, which recommended a move away from short sentences to community-based punishments.
Other recent damning reports have included HM Inspectorate of Prisons warning that drugs were undermining ‘every aspect of prison life’, the National Audit Office saying that the prison service had been ‘far too slow’ in responding to the serious and ‘rapidly changing’ threat posed by prison drug markets, and a report last month from the Independent Monitoring Boards which stated that drugs were now ‘single most destabilising factor’ across the whole prison estate.
The new review would be an opportunity to ‘move beyond managing crisis andtowards building a prison system that is humane, effective and capable of reducing reoffending’, said Prison Reform Trust chief executive Pia Sinha. However, the Prison Officers Association (POA) commented that ‘there have been dozens of so-called independent reports dating back 30 years and more into prisons’ – yet after each report governments did ‘little to make things better’. There was ‘little point doing prisons in isolation as different parts of the justice system are interconnected, such as policing, probation, the court system and the infrastructure around diverting offenders away from prison,’ said POA general secretary Steve Gillan. ‘The criminal justice system is broken from end to end. Our members are tired of warm words, ministerial visits and glossy reports. They want investment.’
Earlier this week the government also repealed the 1824 Vagrancy Act as part of its national plan to end homelessness, decriminalising rough sleeping and begging in a shift towards ‘prevention, support and long-term solutions’. The move was a ‘watershed moment which marks the end of a deeply cruel policy of criminalising people because they are homeless’, said chief executive of Crisis, Matt Downie.
Independent review of the prison system: terms of reference available here