Editorial: Rhetoric and Reality in Penal Reform
It is remarkable how much excitement a prime minister talking about prison creates in the penal lobby. Claiming 20 years since a PM had spoken on the topic and yet with no recognition that he has been PM for well over five years of that time promises of reform abound in his speech.
'I believe prison reform should be a great progressive cause in British politics, and (I) set out my vision for a modern, more effective, truly twenty-first century prison system.' (Cameron, 2016)
Stirring words but given the government obsession with austerity this cannot be an announcement with extra money to improve this barren part of our creaking and frankly unacceptably failing penal system. The main irony lies in the fact that it is arguable that it is the Government's own policies amid public sector cost cutting which has placed the prison system in such jeopardy. The language of rehabilitation and reform are replete though throughout the speech:
'we need a prison system that doesn't see prisoners as simply liabilities to be managed, but instead as potential assets to be harnessed.' (Cameron, 2016)
This has been the rhetorical tone of most criminal justice change in the last five years including the ill-fated TR (Transforming Rehabilitation) programme producing a bifurcated and hapless set of arrangements for probation. As Dunt suggests the installation of Chris Grayling as Justice Secretary 'who ran a mind-bogglingly wrong-headed penal policy.' (Dunt, 2016) has sent the prison system in a decidedly wrong direction under Cameron. Rather than support the good practice ideas which had fledging potential under Kenneth Clarke in the early Coalition Government of 2010, the removal of Clarke and five years under Grayling feels like a salvage operation is now urgently required for a system on its knees - job cuts, staffing crises (number of full-time public sector prison staff fell by 29% between March 2010 and Dec 2014), absence of employability activities within the prison, scandals in parts of the system, inmates in constant lock ups, little or no education, increased suicides, increased numbers, overcrowding - tackling all these issues may be needed first before growth and development can be achieved. Indeed with a disarming distancing Cameron appears to recognise the parlous state of the prison system:
'current levels of prison violence, drug-taking and self-harm should shame us all. In a typical week, there will be almost 600 incidents of self-harm; at least one suicide; and 350 assaults, including 90 on staff.'
'Prisons aren't a holiday camp - not really. They are often miserable, painful environments. Isolation. Mental anguish. Idleness. Bullying. Self-harm. Violence...
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