The Price of Prison
| Author | Roy King |
| Published date | 01 December 1983 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455058303000402 |
| Date | 01 December 1983 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
123
The
Price
of
Prison
Prof.
Roy
King
University
College
of North
Wales
The
author,
a
leading
analyst
of
Penal
policy,
argues
that
the
Government
would
do
well
to
address
itself
to
the
extraordinary
discrepancy
between
its
policies
on
law and
order
on
the
one
hand,
where
critical
judgement
is
suspended
in
favour
of
devoting
ever
larger
sums
to
be
a
lost
cause,
and
its
handling
of
health,
education
and
welfare
services
and
the
public
enterprises
on
the
other,
where
any
sense
of
purpose
is
subordinated
to
the
criteria
of
productivity,
the
elimination
of
over-manning
and
waste,
and
privatisation.
As
the
British
Crime
Survey’
has
demonstrated,
we
live
in
a
surprisingly
crime-free
society,
both
absolutely,
and
relatively
to
other
countries.
For
any
sober
analysis
of
the
costs
and
benefits
of alternative
policies
on
law
and
order
to
take
place
it
is
essential
that
the
myths
of
crime
and
punish-
ment
be
set
to
one
side.
It
must
be
the
first
duty
of
all
responsible
bodies
in
the
law
and
order
field,
and
that
means
the
Government,
politicians,
the
Home
Office,
the
police,
the
prison
authorities,
the
probation
service,
including
of
course
their
respec-
tive
trades
unions
and
staff
associations,
the judi-
ciary,
the
magistracy,
the
academic
commumty
and
above
all
the
press
-
to
deal
with
facts
and
not
build
on
fears.
It
seems
much
more
sensible
to
evaluate
all
public
services
in
relation
to
how
effectively
they
achieve
their
stated
goals,
and
how
economically
they
do
so,
bearing
in
mind
the
avail-
ability
of
resources.
Do
we,
m
other
words,
get
value
for
money?
Comparative
Public
Spending
Over
the
15
year
period
from
1968
to
1983
public
expenditure
generally
has
increased
by
almost
60
%
on
current
items,
but
fallen
by
6
%
on
capital
projects.
On
hospital
services
there
has
been
an
mcrease
of just
over 30 %
on
current
items,
while
the
level
of
capital
spending
was
the
same
at
the
end
of
the
period
as
it
was
at
the
beginning.
On
education
the
current
spending
has
mcreased
by
almost
45
% ,
but
capital
spendmg
has
fallen
more
than
60 % .
When
one
looks
at
law
and
order
generally,
how-
ever,
and
prisons
m
pamcular,
one
finds
a
different
picture.
For
the
Law
and
Order
and
Protective
Services
planned
current
expenditure
has
mcreased
by
75
%
and
the
capital
budget
has
doubled.
For
prisons
alone,
both
current
and
capital
spending
has
doubled.’
Of
course
such
compansons
are
fraught
with
difficulty:
there
were
ups
and
downs
within
the
period,
not
all
planned
increases
were
implemented,
the
services
started
the
period
with
different
legacies
from
the
past
and
quite
different
base
levels
of
existing
spending.
Nevertheless
questions
might
reasonably
be
asked about
priorities
when
the
level
of
capital
spending
planned
for
schools
is
only
eight
times
that
for
prison,
when
even
after
allowing
for
falling
school
rolls
and
increased
pnson
population
there
are
some
200
times
more
school
children
than
prisoners.4
4
Although
law
and
order
services
can
still
be
argued
away
as
constitutmg
only
a
small
proportion
of
total
public
expenditure,
the
proportion
has
grown
at
an
astonishing
rate.
In
1950
it
accounted
for
2.3
%
of all
public
spending.
By
1977
that
had
grown
to
3.8
%.
When
the
Conservatives
came
to
power
m
1979
they
undertook
to
spend
more
on
law
and
order
services
while
cutting
expenditures
elsewhere.
That
undertaking
has
been
honoured,
and
the
present
level
of
almost
4
%
is
set
to
nse
still
further.
And
we
are
talking
about
very
substantial
sums
of
money
indeed:
530
millions
for
prisons
in
the
comung
year,
150
millions
for the
probation
services,
2,500
millions
for
the
police,
and
550
millions
for the
courts
and
other
administrative
services.
Prison
Prices
How
much
does
it
cost
to
deal
with
the
more
than
160,000
annual
receptions,
and
the
daily
average
population
of over
42,000
persons
m
our
pnsons,
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