Prison Works?
| Date | 01 April 2011 |
| Author | David Kirk |
| Published date | 01 April 2011 |
| DOI | 10.1350/jcla.2011.75.2.685 |
| Subject Matter | Opinion |
OPINION
Prison Works?
David Kirk*
Chief Criminal Counsel, Financial Services Authority
A debate was sparked in June 2010 by the current Secretary of State for
Justice and Lord Chancellor, Kenneth Clarke,1in his typically direct
manner, about the wisdom of locking up more offenders for longer. It
provoked an interesting example of the knee-jerk reaction of the print
media when confronted by a government policy advocating anything
other than ‘lock criminals up and throw away the key’, and of their
desire to drive the agenda on crime. Howls of protest were heard in all
quarters, and some very Big Beasts indeed were wheeled out in support
of the opposition to Clarke’s heretical rantings: former Home Secretar-
ies, including Straw, Blunkett and Howard, in a somewhat bizarre
alliance, lined up to claim that the harsh policies they had introduced
while they had been in power had worked. No doubt, this was only a
preliminary skirmish, and the real battle is yet to come if and when
Green and White Papers and Bills are promulgated by the Coalition. We
can anticipate that the opposing forces are even now arming themselves.
Whether we can also anticipate a sensible and thoughtful debate in the
media is less clear.
Those who read my Opinions will have noticed from time to time that
I have little respect for the media’s reporting of criminal justice (or
indeed any other) issues. It will readily be apprehended, therefore, that
I have enjoyed reading Nick Davies’ 2008 book Flat Earth News,2an
excoriating and depressing critique of, and assault on, the profession of
journalism—or ‘churnalism’ as he dubs it.
Amongst his descriptions of the dire state of play in the world of
newspapers Davies devotes a short section to crime reporting in which
he explains how successive governments have been forced into making
policy and drafting legislation by the power of the media. He cites the
example of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 which he claims was passed
following a sustained campaign by the Murdoch press in support of the
proposition, championed by an American sociologist, that imprison-
ment cuts offending. During the debate on the Bill in the House of Lords,
Lord Taylor CJ said: ‘Never in the history of our criminal law have such
far-reaching proposals been put forward on the strength of such flimsy
evidence’.
* The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the Financial Services Authority or the Journal of Criminal Law.
1 BBC News, ‘Justice Secretary plans “radical” prison policy change’, available at http://
www.bbc.co.uk/10457112, accessed 24 January 2011.
2 N. Davies, Flat Earth News: An Award-winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion and
Propaganda in the Global Media (Chatto & Windus: London, 2008).
89The Journal of Criminal Law (2011) 75 JCL 89–91
doi:10.1350/jcla.2011.75.2.685
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