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UK > History > 2011 > Prison (I)
Young
black men make up
four in 10 of youth jail population
Report shows proportion
of black and minority ethnic young men
in young offender institutions
in England and Wales has risen
Wednesday 26 October 2011
00.05 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Alan Travis
Home affairs editor
This article was published on guardian.co.uk
at 00.05 BST
on Wednesday 26 October 2011.
Young black
men now account for nearly 40% of the population of youth jails in England and
Wales, according to a report by the chief inspector of prisons.
The report, published jointly with the youth justice board, shows that the
proportion of black and other minority ethnic young men in young offender
institutions (YOIs) has risen from 23% in 2006 and 33% in 2009/10 to 39% last
year.
The changing demographic profile of the population inside youth jails in England
and Wales also shows an increasing proportion of young Muslims, up from 13% last
year to 16% this year. Foreign national young men account for a record 6% of the
population.
The chief inspector of prisons, Nick Hardwick, says young people aged 15 to 18
are being held in deteroriating conditions in the YOI network, with fewer
feeling safe while they are locked up.
The inspection showed that fewer young inmates felt they could tell someone they
were being victimised or believed a member of staff would take them seriously.
Only half said they had done something while they were inside that would make
them less likely to reoffend in the future.
The report also reveals that more that one-third of the young men had been
physically restrained as part of the disciplinary process at their YOI. The
highest restraint rate – 66% – was at the Keppel unit at Wetherby, which deals
with male teenagers who have not responded to a "normal" YOI regime. The lowest
– 8% – was at the Carlford unit near Woodbridge, Suffolk, which holds 30 teenage
boys serving long sentences.
The over-representation of young black men in youth jails comes despite a sharp
fall in the number of children and young people in custody that has already led
to the closure of five YOIs, including a specialist unit for young women.
The total population of the youth justice "secure estate", which includes eight
male YOIs and three specialist units for girls and young women, continued to
fall from 1,977 in March 2010 to 1,822 this March, before this summer's riots.
Hardwick says, however, that the number of black and minority ethnic children in
custody has not fallen at the same rate as the number of white children being
locked up.
"Between 2007 and 2011 there was a 37% reduction in white children in custody,
compared with a 16% reduction in black and ethnic minority children," says the
report.
The report does not discuss the reasons why young black people make up an ever
greater proportion of the shrinking youth jail population. But Hardwick does
note that an increasing number – 53% now, compared with 39% last year – of young
men are being sent to prison for the first time.
Hardwick said: "This report has highlighted some deterioration in children and
young people's experience of custody. Despite the falling numbers, this
population has well-defined vulnerability and increasing numbers within minority
groups. The need, therefore, to provide these people with support during their
time in custody and in preparation for their release is as great as ever."
Frances Done, the chair of the youth justice board, which commissions places in
youth prisons, said it would be working with all secure establishments to make
sure that young people's time in custody has positive results.
The inspection was based on the experience of 1,115 young men and 47 young women
in YOIs and specialist units.
Young black men make up four in 10 of youth jail
population, NYT, 26.10.2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/26/young-black-men-youth-jails
Prison
population hits record high in England and Wales
Growth in prison population following riots
means parts of the system are becoming 'human warehouses', government warned
Friday 19
August 201
13.46 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 13.46 BST on Friday 19 August
2011. It was last modified at 14.04 BST on Friday 19 August 2011.
The prison
population in England and Wales has hit a record high of 86,654 following the
courts' decision to remand hundreds charged with rioting and looting in custody.
The Ministry of Justice said the prison population had risen by 723 over the
past week. Officials are making contingency plans to accelerate the opening of
new prison buildings and bring mothballed accommodation back into use.
There are currently only 1,439 spare useable places left in the jail system, but
prison chiefs say they remain confident they have enough to cope with those
being imprisoned by the courts in relation to the recent riots.
"We are developing contingencies to increase useable capacity should further
pressure be placed on the prison estate," a Prison Service spokesperson said.
It is thought the plans include opening accommodation at the new Isis prison
next to Belmarsh in south-east London earlier than expected, and bringing back
into use a wing at Lewes prison, East Sussex, which had been closed for
refurbishment, back into use.
The Prison Service said that it had no plans to reverse the decision to close
two prisons - Latchmere House in London, and Brockhill in Redditch - next month.
"We are managing an unprecedented situation and all the staff involved should be
commended for their dedication and hard work during this difficult time," said a
Prison Service spokesperson. "We currently have enough prison places for those
being remanded and sentenced to custody as a result of public disorder."
The use of emergency police cells known as Operation Safeguard is the normal
safety valve when the Prison Service is running out of space, but this is not
currently a possibility as police forces need to keep holding capacity on
standby to deal with further possible disturbances. The pressure is particularly
acute in London, where inmates are being moved out of the capital to other
institutions in order to free up space.
Geoff Dobson, the deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust, said the rapid
increase in prison numbers meant that some parts of the system were "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 that will
provide a fast-track to a criminal career."
His concerns were shared by Paul McDowell, the chief executive of Nacro, the
crime reduction charity, and former governor of Brixton prison, who also warned
that rehabilitation work to tackle reoffending would simply go by the board as
jails tried to cope with the rapid rise in prisoner numbers.
Labour's prison spokesperson, Helen Goodman, said she was becoming increasingly
concerned about the remaining capacity. "The violence that was seen on the
streets of Britain last week must be punished, but the Tory-led government also
have a responsibility to ensure that the sentences handed down are being served
safely," she said.
"Since May last year this Tory-led government has scrapped the prison building
programme and closed four prisons, which has reduced prison capacity even
further.
"The prison population has reached a record high and prison and probation
officers are being increasingly overstretched. It is vital for public safety and
for security in our prisons and the youth secure estate that prison and
probation staff get the resources and support they need," she said.
Prison population hits record high in England and Wales,
G, 19.8.2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/aug/19/prison-population-record-high
Kenneth
Clarke: prison is a waste of money
Rise in
prison numbers unsustainable, says justice secretary,
who blames
media for creating image that prison life is easy
Saturday 16
April 2011
The Guardian
Ben Quinn
This article appeared on p4 of the Main section section of the Guardian
on Saturday 16 April 2011. It was published on guardian.co.uk at 01.30 BST
on Saturday 16 April 2011.
The rate of
jail sentencing is "financially unsustainable", the justice secretary, Kenneth
Clarke, has said, delivering a defiant riposte to critics within his own party
and the tabloid press who have suggested that his plans to overhaul the penal
system are soft on crime.
Clarke last year unveiled a green paper on sentencing as part of government
plans to cut the £4bn prison and probation budget by 20% over four years,
promising to end a Victorian-style "bang 'em up" culture and reduce high
reoffending rates by tackling the root causes.
But after facing sustained criticism, he used an interview with The Times to
dismiss characterisation of him as a minister who is "soft on crime."
He is preparing to publish a bill next month which will include proposals to
allow for large sentence discounts in return for early guilty pleas and
diverting the mentally ill away from jail. The goal is a 3,000 cut in the record
85,000 jail population in England and Wales in four years.
"[The rise in prison numbers is] financially unsustainable. That is not my
principal motivation but it is pointless and very bad value for taxpayers'
money," Clarke said.
He blamed the media and lobby groups for helping to create a public perception
that prison life was easy, adding: "Prisons are not hotels, they are not
comfortable, they are overcrowded, they are noisy. Anyone who visits a prison
soon realises the prevailing atmosphere is one of stupefying boredom on the part
of inmates.
"It is just very, very bad value for taxpayers' money to keep banging them up
and warehousing them in overcrowded prisons where most of them get toughened
up."
He said that too many prisoners sit idly in their cells when they could be doing
something more productive with their time. "I would like to see prisons where
there is a working environment, where people get into the habits of the rest of
the population."
Private firms would be encouraged to operate in jails and help endow inmates
with skills that would make them employable when they entered into free society
again.
"The firms are cautious about advertising it because the newspapers write them
up as 'employing jailbirds'," he said.
However, Clarke did pledge to make community punishments tougher by insisting
offenders do unpaid work for eight hours a day.
"I want them to be more punitive, effective and organised. Unpaid work should
require offenders to work at a proper pace in a disciplined manner rather than
youths just hanging around doing odd bits tidying up derelict sites," he added.
Kenneth Clarke: prison is a waste of money, G, 15.4.2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/apr/16/ken-clarke-prison-waste-money
Colin
Hatch, child sex strangler, killed in prison cell
Another
inmate arrested as murder suspect
after death of serial sex offender
who
murdered Sean Williams, 7, in 1994
Martin
Wainwright
Guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 23 February 2011
12.08 GMT
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 12.08 GMT
on Wednesday 23
February 2011.
It was last modified at 12.28 GMT on Wednesday 23 February 2011.
Police have
begun a murder investigation into the death of Colin Hatch, one of Britain's
most notorious child sex killers, in his cell at a high security jail.
Staff at Full Sutton prison near York said the 38-year-old had died after an
"incident".
Humberside police have arrested another inmate and launched a criminal
investigation.
A spokesman said: "A 38-year-old male prisoner died in the incident. A
35-year-old male prisoner has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Humberside
police are working with the prison service and investigating the incident."
Hatch was given a life term in 1994 after he murdered a seven-year-old boy while
on parole for a previous child sex attack. Sentencing him at the Old Bailey,
Judge Nina Lowry referred to a series of other assaults and said that it was not
possible to envisage a time when the "highly dangerous" paedophile might be
released safely.
She told him: "As of today life imprisonment should mean what it says. In my
judgment you should never be released back into the community while there
remains the slightest danger you will reoffend."
Hatch, who was 21 and jobless at the time, smirked after the jury convicted him
of murder. He had been jailed for three years in 1992 for choking an
eight-year-old until the child almost lost consciousness in a sexual attack.
The judge in that case sentenced Hatch to the maximum permitted under the law.
It was suggested that he should be admitted to Broadmoor after evidence of a
string of attacks on boys since he was 15, but medical staff at the secure
hospital did not consider that he was dangerous enough.
The body of Hatch's murder victim, Sean Williams, was found wrapped in bin
liners and dumped in a lift at the tower block in Finchley, north London, where
Hatch lived at the time. The boy's parents, Lynn and John Williams, criticised
the parole board, probation service and doctors who treated Hatch in prison.
After his conviction they said: "Never again must a family have to suffer this
experience and never again must Colin Hatch be released back into our
community."
Detective Superintendent Duncan Macrae, who led the murder inquiry, called Hatch
"a frighteningly cunning criminal who had pulled the wool over the eyes of the
authorities and would kill again if he was ever released."
Two days ago three prisoners on life sentences were jailed for a vicious knife
attack on a Serbian war criminal at Wakefield high security prison, 30 miles
from Full Sutton.
Colin Hatch, child sex strangler, killed in prison cell,
G, 23.2.2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/23/colin-hatch-murder-prison-cell
Three
prisons to close in coalition justice reforms
800 prison
places will be lost, tallying with Ken Clarke's plans
to reduce the incarcerated
population by around 3,000
Haroon
Siddique
The Guardian
Thursday 13 January 2011
This article appeared in the Guardian on Thursday 13 January 2011.
It was published on guardian.co.uk at 05.00 GMT on Thursday 13 January 2011.
It was last modified at 08.31 GMT on Thursday 13 January 2011.
Three
prisons are to shut by July with the loss of 800 places, it was reported today.
The closures, which tally with justice secretary Ken Clarke's plans to reduce
the prison population in England and Wales by around 3,000 over four years, will
be announced today, according to the Times. They are likely to dismay
Conservative rightwingers who have reacted angrily to Clarke's previous
pronouncements on prison population. However, prison reformers have long argued
that building more prisons is not a long term solution to offending.
The prisons that will reportedly close are Ashwell prison in Rutland, Lancaster
Castle in Lancashire and Morton Hall women's jail in Lincolnshire. The inmates
will be moved elsewhere while staff will be transferred to nearby prisons or
invited to apply for voluntary redundancy.
The latest Ministry of Justice figures show there are currently 82,991
prisoners, around 5,000 less than the usable operational capacity of 87,936.
Clarke's plans would see judges given more discretion over how long killers
spend behind bars, more offenders handed fines or community sentences, and some
foreign nationals allowed to escape jail as long as they leave the UK forever.
Clarke said it was a "simpler, more sensible" approach but Tory backbenchers
voiced concern that criminals would avoid being sent to prison. Shortly after
becoming justice secretary he clashed with former Conservative leader Michael
Howard when Clarke signalled an end to the "Victorian bang 'em up culture" of
the last 12 years, marking an assault on Howard's 'prison works' orthodoxy.
Howard responded by insisting that "crime went down as the prison population
started to go up".
The Conservatives went into the election pledging to match Labour's plans to
build sufficient prisons to house 96,000 inmates by 2014. The Liberal Democrats
had a pledge to halt the prison building programme and urge the courts to use
community punishments instead of short prison sentences. The coalition agreement
split the difference by agreeing to take a fundamental look at sentencing
policy.
Ashwell prison, a former Army camp, is a facility for medium risk males with a
capacity of 214. Lancaster Castle is leased from Lancashire County Council while
the land itself is owned by the Duchy of Lancaster. It has a capacity of 238.
Women's prison Morton Hall, a former RAF base, has a capacity of 392. It will be
converted into an immigration removal centre housing illegal immigrants awaiting
deportation, according to the Times.
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: "An announcement on prison capacity will
be made to parliament this morning."
Three prisons to close in coalition justice reforms, G,
13.1.2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/13/three-prisons-close-justice-reforms
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