Just & Reasonable™

Dear Mr. Field,

Re: Finding better solutions for society than prison

As the local representative for Cities of London & Westminster, I hope
that in this election you will lend your broad support to the Howard
League for Penal Reform’s Take Action 2010 campaign.

As you know, the English and Welsh prison system is in crisis, with a
prison population that has more than doubled since the early 1990s.  It
has become too easy to talk about being tough on crime and simply
increase the number of prison places but all the evidence tells us that
this does not work.

Around two thirds of those receiving short sentences go on to re-offend
within two years of release and this rises up to three quarters for
children leaving custody.  Locking up children and vulnerable people
with mental health needs does not make our community much safer and
will not do much to cut crime.

Instead of simply accepting that each year the prison population will
hit record levels, it seems high time for a different vision.

I have a particular interest in the field of investment in the
community and feel that local justice problems should be tackled
locally. Bureaucratic targets dictated from Whitehall are all very well
but the best way to increase public confidence in the criminal justice
system is to bring it closer to the people.  I think investing in
amenities for the community and schemes to protect local vulnerable
people – particularly addiction treatment programmes – would prevent a
lot of crime from happening in the first place.

It seems to me that a government priority should be ending the use of
short-term prison sentences. In 2008, around two thirds of those
sentenced received a jail term of less than 12 months. Such sentences
are a waste of taxpayers’ money and do very little to stop
re-offending. The re-offending rate of those leaving prison after
sentences of a year or less is 60% within two years of release,
compared to 38% for those completing community orders. There has to be
a better way to tackle petty crime than a short and inefficient spell
in prison.

As my local representative I would really like you to consider the
scandal of how we treat children in the criminal justice system. I
believe we are far too punitive on some of our youngest and most
vulnerable people. England and Wales jails more children than any other
region in Western Europe. 76% of these children re-offend within one
year of release. Since 1990, 30 children have died in custody. I think
such a deliberate policy of incarceration of children is morally
questionable and practically inefficient. I would really like to know
your views on how we can better support our vulnerable young people.

It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the Howard League’s
radical new approach to providing real work in prison. The Howard
League for Penal Reform believes prisoners should be introduced to the
world of real work and its responsibilities. Real work requires an
employment relationship between an external employer and the prisoner,
in order to create a meaningful and realistic employee-employer
relationship. The work should be suitably meaningful to inspire pride
in the work done and should be fairly paid for the task undertaken to
create an incentive to work. I think this is exactly the sort of scheme
we need in English and Welsh prisons that could help turn people’s
lives around.

This election I hope you will make a priority the Howard League’s
campaign promise to fight for “less crime, safer communities, fewer
people in prison”.  It is a promise not to take the soft option on
crime by simply increasing the number of prison places but to think
about how certain individuals might be better catered for in the
community and how the justice system can do more to tackle the
underlying causes of crime.  It is a promise to make our community
safer and it is a promise to use taxpayers’ money wisely on a system
that can justify the expenditure with results.

If you feel you can support this campaign, then please sign up at
www.howardleague.org/takeaction.

Thank you for taking the time to consider backing this campaign.

Yours sincerely,

Justin Atkinson.

PS This email has been published on my blog, Just & Reasonable™, which
you may be interested to read at www.justinatkinson.com/blog/.