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History > 2008 > UK > Prison (I)
Prison works.
So why won't we admit it?
If the
crime rate really is falling,
there's a simple explanation.
We are locking up
more criminals
July 18,
2008
David Green
From The Times
Should we
believe the crime figures? Confidence in the Government is now so low that few
people are prepared to take any official figures on trust. If it were true that
police recorded crime really had fallen by 9per cent and crime measured by the
British Crime Survey really was down by a tenth, the Government would deserve a
little praise.
But it is not just a question of trust. By increasing the prison population the
Government has been doing the right thing. However, it feels rather shame-faced
about that increase and rarely makes the connection between lower crime and more
prisoners. But there are two reasons why increasing the prison population will
reduce crime - incapacitation and deterrence. First, prison incapacitates
offenders. When they are in jail they can't break into your house, steal your
car or stab your teenage son. Secondly, if word gets around among criminals that
there is a bigger risk of going to jail, it has a deterrent effect. The more
certain the chances of punishment, the more criminals will think twice.
When Tony Blair took office in 1997 there were about 61,000 criminals in jail.
The latest figure is 83,575. How many crimes would have been committed if those
22,000 additional offenders had been at large?
The best evidence comes from a Home Office survey in 2000. Offenders about to
start a prison sentence were asked how many crimes they had committed in the
previous 12 months. The average was 140 crimes a year and, for those on drugs,
257. The Government has been trying to limit prison to the most serious
offenders and we know that the majority of prison inmates have a drug or alcohol
problem. The average today is, therefore, likely to be nearer 257 crimes than
140.
If we take the lower figure, incapacitating 22,000 criminals who would have
committed 140 crimes a year prevents more than three million crimes. If they
were all drug users the figure would exceed five million.
Could the increase in the prison population from 2006-07 to 2007-08 explain the
fall in crime over the same period? Police-recorded crime fell by 476,900
offences.
Between April 2007 and April 2008 the prison population increased by 1,843. If
the annual offending rate was 140, then 258,000 crimes would have been
prevented. If the additional prisoners were all serious offenders, as the
Government claims, then 473,000 crimes would have been prevented.
Sheer coincidence? Despite its bashfulness about prison, the Government plainly
does not think so. It plans to increase prison capacity to 96,000 by 2014,
despite the squeamishness of Lord Hurd of Westwell in a letter to The Times
yesterday.
When he was Home Secretary from 1985 to October 1989, Lord Hurd set out to
reduce the prison population and presided over one of the most rapid increases
in crime yet. There were 46,800 prisoners in 1985 rising to 50,000 in 1988 as
judges responded to the crime wave. Instead of backing the judges, Lord Hurd cut
the prison population so that it fell to 45,600 soon after he left.
Crime under the British Crime Survey rose from 12.4 million offences in 1985 to
more than 14 million in 1989, and police records show an increase from 3.6
million in 1985 to 4.5 million in 1990. Some people never learn.
The Government has lost confidence in itself to such an extent that it does not
know how to claim credit for an effective policy when it has one. It should be
shouting aloud that “prison works”. Instead it talks of releasing prisoners
early, puts pressure on judges to hand down lenient sentences and acts as if it
thinks that criminals prepared to stick a knife in someone will be deterred by a
visit to the local A&E.
But what about those crime figures? Should we find the 10 per cent fall
reassuring? Crime is historically high at about ten times the rate in the 1950s.
True, during the 1990s it got up to about 12 times the 1950s figure. A fall is a
fall, but we have still got a long way to go and not just by comparison with
more than 50 years ago.
Police records throughout Europe reveal that England and Wales had the
second-highest crime rate out of the 37 countries in the 2006 European
Sourcebook of Crime, compiled by an international team (including the Home
Office) under the auspices of the Council of Europe. In 2003, at 11,241 crimes
per 100,000 population, our rate was more than double the average of 4,736.
Moreover, the Government does not really believe its own figures. Today's crime
figures mention that 2.7 million fraudulent transactions were recorded on
UK-issued cards in 2007, an increase of a fifth in one year, according to the
organisation that handles payments. But how much fraud appears in police
figures?
Total fraud and forgery was down by 22 per from 199,700 in 2006-07 to 155,400 in
2007-08. The more you look into the figures the more one doubts them. But they
are the best we have and should not diminish the credit due to the Government
for pursuing a policy of “prison works”.
David Green is the director of the think-tank Civitas
Prison works. So why won't we admit it?, Ts, 18.7.2008,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4353433.ece
Muslim
gangs 'are taking control of prison'
Sunday May
25 2008
This article appeared in the Observer
on Sunday May 25 2008 on p1 of the News
section.
It was last updated at 00:03 on May 25 2008.
The Observer
Jamie Doward, home affairs editor
Prison
officers at one of Britain's maximum security jails are losing control to Muslim
gangs, according to a confidential report obtained by The Observer. An internal
review of Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire warns that staff believe a 'serious
incident is imminent' as several wings become dominated by Muslim prisoners.
The report, written by the Prison Service's Directorate of High Security, says
there is an 'ongoing theme of fear and instability' among staff at Whitemoor,
where just under a third of the 500 prisoners are Muslim.
It claims: 'There was much talk around the establishment about "the Muslims".
Some staff perceived the situation at Whitemoor had resulted in Muslim prisoners
becoming more of a gang than a religious group. The sheer numbers, coupled with
a lack of awareness among staff, appeared to be engendering fear and handing
control to the prisoners.' The situation has become so acute that white
prisoners are routinely warned about the Muslim gangs by staff on arrival.
The report says that apprehension about Muslim prisoners has potentially
damaging consequences and is in danger of 'leading to hostility and
Islamophobia'. It serves to highlight the growing concern about extremist
activity in the UK's jails. The Home Office is concerned that young male
prisoners are being radicalised by Muslim gangs and that the prison system is
becoming a recruiting ground for al-Qaeda sympathisers. Similar problems have
been experienced at Belmarsh prison in London and Frankland in Durham. A number
of high-profile al-Qaeda sympathisers at Frankland have been moved as a result
of increased tensions within the jail.
Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said she was
alarmed at the report's findings. 'The difficulties of running a high-security
prison such as Whitemoor cannot be underestimated, but much of what this
internal report uncovers is extremely disturbing,' she said. 'It is vital that
the problems uncovered at Whitemoor are addressed as a matter of urgency.'
The report was commissioned partly as a response to the deaths of five prisoners
at the jail within 12 months. Muslim prisoner support groups have also
complained that Muslims are suffering harassment from staff. Recently a number
of Whitemoor staff have been suspended on unrelated corruption charges.
The tense stand-off between staff and prisoners is causing problems, the report
warns. 'Staff appeared reluctant to challenge inappropriate behaviour, in
particular among BME [black and ethnic minority] prisoners for fear of doing the
wrong thing,' the report states. 'This was leading to a general feeling of a
lack of control and shifting the power dynamic towards prisoners.' It adds: 'A
wing itself felt particularly unstable with a general lack of confidence among
staff.'
The emergence of gang culture in Whitemoor has alarmed some prisoners. The team
that compiled the report found that over the Christmas period the segregation
unit was full as inmates sought refuge from the gangs over debt problems and
drugs.
Henry Bellingham, the Conservatives' shadow justice minister, who has raised
concerns about the running of Whitemoor in parliament, said he welcomed the
report. 'However, I'm very concerned about some of the findings,' he added.
'They point to a systematic breakdown in the chain of command. It's in
everyone's interests that these problems are sorted out soon. Whitemoor holds
some of the most dangerous prisoners in the country.'
In recent months the Prison Service has unveiled a series of initiatives to
combat extremism in the UK's jails through the supervision and monitoring of
imams and better training for staff. 'It is vital that prison staff are equipped
with the knowledge and skills to ensure they have the confidence to identify and
challenge behaviour that is of concern,' said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of
Justice. 'A programme of work is planned at Whitemoor to increase mutual
understanding between staff and prisoners, including a development day for staff
on the Muslim faith, focus groups in which staff and ethnic minority prisoners
will discuss prison community issues, and diversity events.
'The prison will continue to work closely with the Prison Service's Extremism
Unit and the police to monitor and assess issues around extremism, and work will
be undertaken to examine the management of gangs and terrorist prisoners within
the prison.'
Muslim gangs 'are taking control of prison', O, 25.5.2008,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/may/25/prisonsandprobation.ukcrime
Almost
3,000 children now held in custody
Saturday,
19 April 2008
The Independent
By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent
A drive to cut the number of children behind bars in England and Wales – the
highest in western Europe – has failed.
The Youth
Justice Board (YJB) has missed its target to reduce by 10 per cent the number of
youngsters in custody between 2005 and 2008, it will announce later this month.
The board had aimed to lower the juvenile prison population in England and Wales
from 2,676 in March 2005 to 2,408 by last month, appealing to youth courts to
use community sentences instead of custody.
Instead the board has presided over a rise of 8 per cent over the period, with
the numbers of youngsters in custody reaching 2,883 by February.
The YJB says it can cope with the high numbers of juvenile inmates, but admits
the total is expected to climb higher by the summer.
Penal reformers reacted angrily to the disclosure, and warned that imprisoning
youngsters was counter-productive as three-quarters of them went on to reoffend.
Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, accused the board
of acting as an "extension of the prison service".
She said: "The YJB's turn-key mentality has overridden any attempt to grapple
with youth crime issues beyond managing the movement of children within the
juvenile estate. Hence they've not just failed to meet their targets, but
actually seen things get worse."
Enver Solomon, deputy director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at
King's College, London, blamed the rise on the "criminalisation" of children by
police who – under pressure to meet targets – handed out cautions and penalty
notices to teenagers for relatively minor offences.
"This is a black mark against all the Government has achieved and the investment
they have put into the youth justice system," he said. About twice as many
children are jailed than in Germany, which has a bigger population, and four
times as many as in France.
One reason is that the age of criminal responsibility is 10 in England and
Wales, lower than anywhere else in western Europe, apart from Scotland, where it
is eight.
Another is that the rapid rise in the number of anti-social behaviour orders
being handed to children means there is greater risk they will get caught up in
the criminal justice system.
More than 80 per cent of the youngsters given custodial sentences are sent to
youth offender institutions, which are run by the prison services.
The rest are held in secure training centres, privately-run units aimed at
rehabilitating vulnerable youngsters, or secure children's homes run by local
authorities.
The United Nations condemned Britain's record on young offenders three years
ago, but since then the situation has further deteriorated. Rod Morgan resigned
as the YJB's chairman last year with a warning that youth custody services were
on the brink of crisis and that targets for bringing offences to justice were
having "perverse consequences".
A spokeswoman for the YJB said: "The law makes it clear that for young people
under 18, custody must be the last resort, but sentencing decisions in
individual cases are a matter for the courts.
"The Youth Justice Board believes there is scope for reducing the use of custody
and is working with sentencers to achieve this."
She said the 10 per cent target had been an "aspiration" that underlined the
board's commitment to reducing use of custody. But she said its success largely
depended on a range of factors that were outside the YJB's control.
Almost 3,000 children now held in custody, I, 19.4.2008,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/almost-3000-children-now-held-in-custody-811779.html
Prisoner
seriously assaulted every 45 minutes in Britain
Monday, 3
March 2008
The Independent
By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent
One serious attack takes place every 45 minutes in the overcrowded jails of
England and Wales as prison staff struggle to cope with soaring levels of
violence. Ministry of Justice figures reveal the number of assaults on prisoners
by cellmates have rocketed from 1,790 in 1996 to 11,826 last year, a rise of 561
per cent in just over a decade.
The total has risen every year since the mid-1990s, and an inmate now faces a
one in eight risk of being attacked by another prisoner in a year. The figures
do not include the hundreds of attacks on prison officers a year.
They underline the crisis gripping the country's jails, which are currently
holding a record total of 82,180, more than 150 prisoners above their official
"operating capacity".
The Conservatives will pledge today to increase the number of prison places by
5,000 as part of a package of measures to tackle prison overcrowding. David
Cameron, the Tory leader, launching a green paper entitled Prisons with a
Purpose, will outline the plans to fund the extra places from private-sector
money raised by selling off out-dated prison land and buildings for
redevelopment. He will stress that the Tories will not release prisoners early,
shorten sentences or fetter judicial discretion.
Nick Herbert, the shadow Justice Secretary, will say: "Under Labour, reoffending
by criminals has risen, jails are in crisis and over 18,000 prisoners have been
released early on to the streets. A new approach is desperately needed."
Under the Tories, jails would focus on rehabilitating prisoners before and after
their release, he said. "By driving down re-offending, we will break the cycle
of crime and make Britain a safer place."
Penal reformers said the increase in violent attacks in prisons was inevitable
given the rising tensions causing by crowding more offenders into cramped
conditions often far from their homes. Juliet Lyon, the director of the Prison
Reform Trust, said: "It would be grotesque if this level of violence became
accepted simply as normal. As we see numbers in prison rise, and constructive
activity decline, it should be of no surprise that assault rates have climbed so
steeply."
Jenny Willott, a Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on justice, who obtained the
figures, said: "The Government's addiction to criminal justice legislation has
left our jails packed to the rafters.
"Prisoners are kept in ever closer proximity, hard-working prison officers are
stretched even further and the inevitable result is an increase in violent
behaviour. Ministers must realise we cannot build our way out of the current
prison crisis."
Jack Straw, the Secretary of State for Justice, is considering further emergency
steps to ease the pressure on jails. The ministry is refusing to rule out any
option.
One possibility is that the "end of custody licence" scheme, under which
non-dangerous offenders are released from jail up to 18 days early, be further
extended. Or he could opt for a one-off "early executive release" of thousands
of low-level offenders. He has already announced that 11,000 foreign nationals
currently in jails will have their sentences, reduced by nine months rather than
the current four and a half months.
Prisoner seriously assaulted every 45 minutes in Britain,
I, 3.3.2008,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/prisoner-seriously-assaulted-every-45-minutes-in-britain-790475.html
Overcrowded jails 'at panic stations'
Sunday
February 24 2008
The Observer
Jamie Doward, home affairs editor
This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday February 24 2008 on p2 of the
News section.
It was last updated at 01:55 on February 24 2008.
Britain's
overfilled jails are at 'panic stations' as they lurch from crisis to crisis,
the chief inspector of prisons warns in an Observer interview today that will
make uncomfortable reading for the government.
At the end of a week in which the prison population rose above the critical
82,000 mark for the first time, Anne Owers said she was not sure how long the
system 'can contain this kind of huge pressure'.
'It's very bad,' Owers said. 'As you hit each new peak, the prison system is
bumping against a new crisis. For the last six months we've been looking at a
system that moves from panic stations to just about containing crisis.'
She warned that disturbances within the prison system were rising as a result of
overcrowding. 'My impression is the level of incidents in prisons is increasing
- an indication of a system operating too near to the knuckle,' she said.
Owers normally confines her comments to her annual reports, but her decision to
speak out reflects the level of concern about overcrowding. 'Prisoners are
getting very frustrated; staff are struggling to survive the day. That's not a
good recipe for running prisons. It's a very risky situation.'
She was scathing about the current situation, signalling that it was the fault
of successive ministers. 'You wouldn't start from here if you wanted to create a
decent prison system,' she said. 'This is a result of decisions taken - or not
taken - a long time ago.'
The frank comments by the government-appointed Owers reflect growing concerns
that the situation in Britain's jails is out of control. The Conservatives'
prisons spokesman, Nick Herbert, said her comments should be a wake-up call for
the government. 'Jack Straw [the Justice Secretary] must come to parliament
tomorrow to explain how he is going to deal with this crisis of the government's
own making and what provision he has made for emergency capacity,' Herbert said.
The prison population normally falls over the half-term period, when fewer
judges are sitting. But it has risen for two successive weeks, leaving Straw
forced to make a coded appeal to magistrates to consider alternatives to jail
sentences.
Straw's dramatic intervention suggests the government has at least in the short
term ruled out expanding the use of early-release schemes for prisoners,
something it introduced last year in a bid to alleviate overcrowding. He
suggested instead that magistrates hand down more non-custodial sentences.
But that call has prompted anger in certain quarters. 'We see big problems with
provisions for both the prison and probation services,' said Cindy Barnett,
chairman of the Magistrates Association. 'We already use community penalties far
more than custody.'
The Probation Service warned that it did not have the resources to handle a
sudden influx of offenders if they are diverted from prison to community
sentences. 'Both probation and prison are full,' said Harry Fletcher of the
probation officers' union, Napo. 'Unless the government finds funds to support
probation and prisons, sentencing will be completely undermined.'
Experts suggest it is only a matter of time before the government is forced to
release more prisoners early.
Overcrowded jails 'at panic stations', O, 24.2.2008,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/24/prisonsandprobation
1.30pm GMT
16,000
prisoners freed early, ministry reveals
Thursday
January 31, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
Haroon Siddique and agencies
More than 16,000 prisoners have been freed early - including 3,000 guilty of
violent crimes - under a government scheme to cut jail overcrowding, the justice
ministry revealed today.
The figures
show 301 crimes were committed by prisoners released under the scheme between
its introduction last June and last December.
Of those released, 215 have reoffended and 117 former inmates are on the run
after defying orders to return to jail.
The end of the custody licence scheme creates a presumption that prisoners
serving between four weeks and four years will be released 18 days before the
end of their sentence.
The shadow justice secretary, Nick Herbert, said early release had "put the
public at risk" but failed to deal with prison overcrowding, which he blamed on
a refusal to build more jails.
He said the government had created "more than 300 unnecessary victims of crime".
"They should have been protected by the criminal justice system but have been
let down by Labour's incompetence," he said. "This early release scheme must be
scrapped immediately and sufficient prison places provided so that public safety
comes first."
The figures show that 71% of those released early were serving sentences of six
months or less.
16,000 prisoners freed early, ministry reveals, G,
31.1.2008,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2250010,00.html
1.30pm GMT
update
PM
steams ahead with plan to build 'Titan' prisons
Wednesday
January 30, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
Andrew Sparrow, senior political correspondent
Gordon
Brown confirmed today that the government would go ahead with plans to build new
2,500-person "Titan" jails in spite of criticism from the chief inspector of
prisons.
The prime
minister spoke just a few hours after the justice secretary, Jack Straw,
appeared to suggest that the government was having second thoughts about the
initiative.
In her annual report, published today, the chief inspector of prisons, Anne
Owers, criticised the proposals for Titan jails unveiled last year. She said
building Titans would be "flying in the face of our, and others', evidence that
smaller prisons work better than large ones".
Asked about her remarks, Straw told the Today programme: "We are not definitely
going to go ahead with them. That's the default setting. But we want to wait and
see what people say."
At Prime Minister's Questions, the Conservative Shailesh Vara suggested that
Straw's words were evidence of "a Titanic U-turn".
However, Brown insisted that the construction of three Titan jails would take
place. "We will go ahead with these prisons following the consultation that
[Straw] said would take place," he told MPs.
In his earlier interview, Straw said he did not have planning permission for any
Titan jails and it was never his plan to build "large warehouses as they have in
the US and France".
Instead he was interested in bringing together smaller prisons into a "single
administrative unit". This was happening on the Isle of Sheppey, where three
small jails were combining, he said.
"What we are aiming to do is ensure that within a complex of a large
establishment you have what amount to a number of smaller discreet prisons. And
because they can benefit from the economies of scale on back-office
administration, better healthcare and security, you've got more money, not less,
to put in," Straw said.
Straw denied the prisons were full. He said there were currently 1,200 spare
places, that an extra 1,000 spaces would be available before April, and an extra
2,600 by the end of the year.
He said he sincerely hoped prison overcrowding wouldn't get to the point where
he had to release more prisoners early. But he refused to rule out the idea
completely.
Straw said Owers' report acknowledged prisons were "better places" than they
were 10 or 15 years ago, and that re-offending rates were "improving".
PM steams ahead with plan to build 'Titan' prisons, G,
30.1.2008,
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2249048,00.html
Jailing
mothers 'damaged a generation'
Wednesday,
30 January 2008
The New York Times
By Sarah Cassidy
Around
18,000 children were separated from their mothers by imprisonment every year,
Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green said, adding that the high level of custodial
terms was damaging the prospects of a new generation as well as being a burden
on the taxpayer, who will have to foot the bill for the damaged children.
According to a report by 11 Million, the commissioner's organisation, many women
are being imprisoned for minor offences at the expense of their children's
wellbeing. The report, which will be published tomorrow to coincide with a
debate in the House of Lords on the plight of women in prison, concluded that
the treatment of mothers by the judicial system needed a radical overhaul.
Sir Al said: "Nobody in their right mind would think it is in a child's best
interest to be born in prison or spend their early years there. There is a
societal issue at stake about the best way to deal with women offenders. There
is a need to achieve a balance between the use of prison to address crime and
keep society safe and, on the other hand, to do whatever is best for highly
vulnerable women in view of their role in bringing up the next generation."
Lord Ramsbotham, the former chief inspector of prisons and now an independent
peer, will call for the establishment of a women's justice board, warning that
the prison system was "designed by men for men" and is failing women prisoners.
There are just over 80,000 prisoners in UK jails, 4,300 of whom are women.
Around a third of women prisoners have children under five. Some children are
adopted, others are cared for by their father or another relative and some will
be placed in care until their mother is released, or sometimes longer.
But children of jailed mothers more likely to be convicted of a crime and to
serve time on probation than other children. They are also three times more
likely to display antisocial behaviour and suffer mental health problems in
later life.
Very few of the women had committed offences that made them a danger to society,
the report said. Women were being jailed unnecessarily for minor offences, doing
great damage to their children.
The report called for mothers who commit non-violent crimes to be allowed to
serve their sentence in a community-based unit .
It recommended that probation reports assess the impact on a female offender's
children before their mother is sentenced, and called for government research
into the impact on children of being separated from their mothers.
Research suggests babies can suffer severe psychological damage if they are
separated from their mothers between the age of six months and four years.
Behind
bars: the figures
18,000: The number of children who are separated from their mothers by
imprisonment each year.
9: The percentage of children who are cared for by their fathers while their
mothers are in prison.
5: The percentage of women prisoners whose children remain in their own home
once their mother has been sentenced.
1 in 3 Women prisoners are single parents.
66: The percentage of women in prison who have dependent children under 18.
1 in 2: Women in custody have suffered from domestic violence.
1 in 3: Women in custody have suffered sexual abuse.
Jailing mothers 'damaged a generation', I, 30.1.2008,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jailing-mothers-damaged-a-generation-775591.html
Prisoners 'to be chipped like dogs'
Hi-tech
'satellite' tagging planned in order to create more space in jails
Civil
rights groups and probation officers furious at 'degrading' scheme
Published:
13 January 2008
The Independent on Sunday
By Brian Brady, Whitehall Editor
Ministers
are planning to implant "machine-readable" microchips under the skin of
thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the electronic tagging scheme
that would create more space in British jails.
Amid concerns about the security of existing tagging systems and prison
overcrowding, the Ministry of Justice is investigating the use of satellite and
radio-wave technology to monitor criminals.
But, instead of being contained in bracelets worn around the ankle, the tiny
chips would be surgically inserted under the skin of offenders in the community,
to help enforce home curfews. The radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, as
long as two grains of rice, are able to carry scanable personal information
about individuals, including their identities, address and offending record.
The tags, labelled "spychips" by privacy campaigners, are already used around
the world to keep track of dogs, cats, cattle and airport luggage, but there is
no record of the technology being used to monitor offenders in the community.
The chips are also being considered as a method of helping to keep order within
prisons.
A senior Ministry of Justice official last night confirmed that the department
hoped to go even further, by extending the geographical range of the internal
chips through a link-up with satellite-tracking similar to the system used to
trace stolen vehicles. "All the options are on the table, and this is one we
would like to pursue," the source added.
The move is in line with a proposal from Ken Jones, the president of the
Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), that electronic chips should be
surgically implanted into convicted paedophiles and sex offenders in order to
track them more easily. Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is seen as
the favoured method of monitoring such offenders to prevent them going near
"forbidden" zones such as primary schools.
"We have wanted to take advantage of this technology for several years, because
it seems a sensible solution to the problems we are facing in this area," a
senior minister said last night. "We have looked at it and gone back to it and
worried about the practicalities and the ethics, but when you look at the
challenges facing the criminal justice system, it's time has come."
The Government has been forced to review sentencing policy amid serious
overcrowding in the nation's jails, after the prison population soared from
60,000 in 1997 to 80,000 today. The crisis meant the number of prisoners held in
police cells rose 13-fold last year, with police stations housing offenders more
than 60,000 times in 2007, up from 4,617 the previous year. The UK has the
highest prison population per capita in western Europe, and the Government is
planning for an extra 20,000 places at a cost of £3.8bn – including three
gigantic new "superjails" – in the next six years.
More than 17,000 individuals, including criminals and suspects released on bail,
are subject to electronic monitoring at any one time, under curfews requiring
them to stay at home up to 12 hours a day. But official figures reveal that
almost 2,000 offenders a year escape monitoring by tampering with ankle tags or
tearing them off. Curfew breaches rose from 11,435 in 2005 to 43,843 in 2006 –
up 283 per cent. The monitoring system, which relies on mobile-phone technology,
can fail if the network crashes.
A multimillion-pound pilot of satellite monitoring of offenders was shelved last
year after a report revealed many criminals simply ditched the ankle tag and
separate portable tracking unit issued to them. The "prison without bars"
project also failed to track offenders when they were in the shadow of tall
buildings.
The Independent on Sunday has now established that ministers have been assessing
the merits of cutting-edge technology that would make it virtually impossible
for individuals to remove their electronic tags.
The tags, injected into the back of the arm with a hypodermic needle, consist of
a toughened glass capsule holding a computer chip, a copper antenna and a
"capacitor" that transmits data stored on the chip when prompted by an
electromagnetic reader.
But details of the dramatic option for tightening controls over Britain's
criminals provoked an angry response from probation officers and civil-rights
groups. Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: "If the Home Office
doesn't understand why implanting a chip in someone is worse than an ankle
bracelet, they don't need a human-rights lawyer; they need a common-sense
bypass.
"Degrading offenders in this way will do nothing for their rehabilitation and
nothing for our safety, as some will inevitably find a way round this new
technology."
Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of
Probation Officers, said the proposal would not make his members' lives easier
and would degrade their clients. He added: "I have heard about this suggestion,
but we feel the system works well enough as it is. Knowing where offenders like
paedophiles are does not mean you know what they are doing.
"This is the sort of daft idea that comes up from the department every now and
then, but tagging people in the same way we tag our pets cannot be the way
ahead. Treating people like pieces of meat does not seem to represent an
improvement in the system to me."
The US market leader VeriChip Corp, whose parent company has been selling radio
tags for animals for more than a decade, has sold 7,000 RFID microchips
worldwide, of which about 2,000 have been implanted in humans. The company
claims its VeriChips are used in more than 5,000 installations, crossing
healthcare, security, government and industrial markets, but they have also been
used to verify VIP membership in nightclubs, automatically gaining the carrier
entry – and deducting the price of their drinks from a pre-paid account.
The possible value of the technology to the UK's justice system was first
highlighted 18 months ago, when Acpo's Mr Jones suggested the chips could be
implanted into sex offenders. The implants would be tracked by satellite,
enabling authorities to set up "zones", including schools, playgrounds and
former victims' homes, from which individuals would be barred.
"If we are prepared to track cars, why don't we track people?" Mr Jones said.
"You could put surgical chips into those of the most dangerous sex offenders who
are willing to be controlled."
The case for: 'We track cars, so why not people?'
The Government is struggling to keep track of thousands of offenders in the
community and is troubled by an overcrowded prison system close to bursting.
Internal tagging offers a solution that could impose curfews more effectively
than at present, and extend the system by keeping sex offenders out of
"forbidden areas". "If we are prepared to track cars, why don't we track
people?" said Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers
(Acpo).
Officials argue that the internal tags enable the authorities to enforce
thousands of court orders by ensuring offenders remain within their own walls
during curfew hours – and allow the immediate verification of ID details when
challenged.
The internal tags also have a use in maintaining order within prisons. In the
United States, they are used to track the movement of gang members within jails.
Offenders themselves would prefer a tag they can forget about, instead of the
bulky kit carried around on the ankle.
The case against: 'The rest of us could be next'
Professionals in the criminal justice system maintain that the present system is
95 per cent effective. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is
unproven. The technology is actually more invasive, and carries more information
about the host. The devices have been dubbed "spychips" by critics who warn that
they would transmit data about the movements of other people without their
knowledge.
Consumer privacy expert Liz McIntyre said a colleague had already proved he
could "clone" a chip. "He can bump into a chipped person and siphon the chip's
unique signal in a matter of seconds," she said.
One company plans deeper implants that could vibrate, electroshock the
implantee, broadcast a message, or serve as a microphone to transmit
conversations. "Some folks might foolishly discount all of these downsides and
futuristic nightmares since the tagging is proposed for criminals like rapists
and murderers," Ms McIntyre said. "The rest of us could be next."
Prisoners 'to be chipped like dogs' , IoS, 13.1.2008,
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3333852.ece
Overcrowding blamed for 37% rise in suicides
among inmates in 'failing' prison system
· Tories
accuse government of mismanagement
· Ministers say shared cells can help reduce self-harm
Wednesday
January 2, 2008
Guardian
Will Woodward, chief political correspondent
Penal
reform campaigners and the Conservatives last night blamed the government for a
37% increase in suicides in prison, attributing it directly to overcrowding.
Figures released by the Ministry of Justice showed there were 92 apparently
self-inflicted deaths among prisoners in England and Wales in 2007, compared
with 67 in 2006.
Frances
Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said the rise was "the
human cost of the prisons crisis". But the Ministry of Justice claimed that
overcrowding could help prevent suicides because lonely prisoners placed in
shared cells gained from "someone to talk to".
The rise in numbers comes after two years of falls: there were 78 suicides in
2005 and 95 in 2004.
"The Prison Service has taken great strides in suicide prevention in recent
years but it is all for naught when the system is on its knees with record
overcrowding," Crook said. "When government ministers consider the shame of our
failing prison system, a system currently facing 3% budget cuts despite the fact
it is expected to house more people than ever before, the deaths of these 92
men, women and children should sit uneasily on their consciences."
The rise in the prison population, partly caused by an increase in mandatory
sentencing, forced the government last year to trigger Operation Safeguard,
housing inmates in police and court cells. Later, more than 10,000 prisoners
were released early to relieve strain in the system. The prison population was
80,707 at the last count, on December 21 - just 1,048 short of "usable"
capacity.
Juliet Lyon, of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "Far too many people with serious
and enduring mental health problems are held in custody, which, despite the best
efforts of prison staff, can only make their illness worse."
Nick Herbert, the shadow justice secretary, said the figures were "a terrible
indictment of the government's mismanagement of the prisons system". He added:
"Ministers ignored repeated warnings about inadequate prison capacity, they
allowed the jails to become ever more overcrowded, and these tragic deaths are
the inevitable and avoidable consequence."
But a justice ministry spokesman said: "A high proportion of prisoners arrive in
prison with known factors that we know increase the risk of them harming
themselves. However, there is no agreed evidence that overcrowding exacerbates
levels of self-harm in prison. In fact cell sharing is a known protective factor
against suicide. The doubling up of an at-risk prisoner with a cellmate can help
reduce feelings of loneliness and provide both with someone to talk to."
Phil Wheatley, the director general of the Prison Service, said his staff
"continued to make strenuous efforts" and it was critical that the service
remained "focused in this key area".
A cross-departmental review by the former Home Office minister Lord Bradley into
how more offenders with severe mental health problems might be diverted from
prison is due to report this summer. The prisons minister, Maria Eagle, is also
considering a request to beef up the Forum for Preventing Deaths in Custody.
A justice ministry analysis shows big rises in deaths among vulnerable people,
including young offenders, remand prisoners, foreign nationals, and lifers. The
most recent death recorded was Joker Idris, an 18-year-old from Sudan, who was
serving a year for criminal damage and carrying an offensive weapon. On
Christmas day he was found hanging in his cell at Chelmsford prison in Essex.
About a fifth of the deaths recorded did not result in a suicide verdict or open
verdict at an inquest. But the figures show all deaths "where it appears that a
prisoner has acted specifically to take their own life". The Howard League said
that in 2007, 21 of the 88 inmates who died up to December 21 were being
monitored on suicide watch. Belmarsh, Holme House, Leicester and Wandsworth
jails each had four suicides, and nine other prisons had three each.
The ministry said 130,000 prisoners went through the system a year, and about
1,500 a day were assessed as at particular risk. More than 100 were resuscitated
after self-harm and many hundreds more had been helped "by the care and timely
interventions of staff".
Custody
deaths 2007
There were 92 self-inflicted deaths in prison in 2007, 25 more than 2006,
according to figures released by the Ministry of Justice. A breakdown of the
deaths by category shows they included:
84 males (up 20 on 2006)
8 females (up 3)
7 young offenders (up 5)
1 juvenile (up 1)
4 indeterminate sentences (up 2)
18 other lifers (up 12)
23 foreign national prisoners (up 17)
90 occurred in public prisons and 2 in contracted prisons
Overcrowding
blamed for 37% rise in suicides among inmates in 'failing' prison system,
G, 2.1.2008
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2234034,00.html
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