Archive for the ‘Benefits’ Category

Putting prison spending in context

Friday, January 7th, 2011

Ever wondered how much money the government spends on justice, prisons and policing in the context of total government spending?

There’s a brilliant chart which shows this information and quite a bit more for the fiscal year ended March 2010.

According to the chart, the government spent around £17 billion directly on justice, prisons and policing including: £9.3 billion spent by the Ministry of Justice, £6.4 billion spent on policing, £1.1 billion of devolved spending on justice in Scotland and £200 million of devolved spending on prisons, the public prosecution service, criminal justice and youth justice in Northern Ireland (not to mention the relevant portion of the £4.4 billion of devolved spending on local government and social justice in Wales). Therefore, out of £669.3 billion total government spending for the year, the government spent around 2.5 pence out of every pound directly on justice, prisons and policing.

Of course, these numbers only account for the direct spending on justice, prisons and policing. It could be argued that there are considerable indirect costs which arise as a result of the prison system, for example additional benefits spending when a bread-winner in a relationship is jailed and faces reduced employment opportunities on release.

According to the chart, the government spent nearly £60 billion on employment related benefits in the fiscal year ended March 2010.

These benefits and the spending on justice, prisons and policing represented over 11 pence in every pound the government spent that year. One wonders whether they will prove to be a sensible investment of taxpayers’ money.

Judging by the facts – like persistently high re-offending rates by people released from prison – the money being spent on the prison system could be spent better. Have you got any suggestions for how the prison system could be improved? Please do post them below.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Benefits, Government spending, Justice, Prison system | No Comments »

Response from Mark Field, MP

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Mark Field, MP sent a prompt response dated 12 April 2010 to the e-mail quoted in the previous post on this blog.

According to his letter, another constituent contacted him in March 2010 regarding the Howard League’s excellent work in prisons. Mr. Field in the past has written to both the government and his own front bench to highlight projects within prisons to get prisoners involved in interesting and productive work and to foster relationships with business.

He also feels that an imbalance exists in our justice system which we must address if we are serious about breaking the cycle of crime. As such, should the Conservative Party win the upcoming election, it has pledged to introduce a range of measures including:

  • replacing the automatic release scheme with earned release;
  • making community sentences tough and effective, and withdrawing any benefits for those who fail to attend;
  • ensuring that offenders compensate victims through a victims’ fund – those serving custodial sentences will pay into the victims’ fund through work in prison;
  • accelerating the deportation of foreign national prisoners; and
  • introducing honesty in sentencing so courts set a minimum and a maximum period of incarceration.

These all seem like pragmatic policies – in particular withdrawing benefits for those who fail to attend community sentences. It would be good if the next government would also consider re-aligning incentives in the justice system along the lines mentioned in an earlier post on this blog to encourage less re-offending.

What would be your top priority for reform of the justice system if you were in charge – let readers know by commenting below.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Benefits, Justice, Prison system | No Comments »

Welfare benefits cards for ex-prisoners

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

The delay which many ex-prisoners face before receiving welfare benefits on release from prison is one of the many areas for improvement in the prison system identified by Sir David Ramsbotham’s riveting “Prisongate: The Shocking State of Britain’s Prisons and the Need for Visionary Change“.

Sir David discovered that many prisoners can only apply for benefits after release from prison. Many ex-prisoners therefore face delays before receiving their benefits at a time when they’re already facing the challenge of re-acclimatising to life outside prison.

The government could address this problem by issuing a benefit card to prisoners on their release from prison. The ex-prisoner would receive welfare benefits for a given period of time via the card. Importantly, the card would be ready immediately on the prisoner’s release.

As mentioned in the Just & Reasonable™ blog post on February 3rd, 2010, it would not be possible to withdraw cash from the card or go overdrawn and the card would be non-transferable (i.e. it could only be used by the ex-prisoner). It would be illegal for retailers to allow users of the card to pay for products like alcohol and cigarettes – in much the same way that it’s illegal for retailers to sell alcohol to children. In this way, users of the card would be encouraged to spend state benefits on the things for which they’re intended.

The card would also make it much harder to spend state benefits on illegal drugs because few street drug dealers are set up to accept plastic. In this way, the card would help to reduce the current outrageous redistribution of wealth from hard-working taxpayers to illegal drug dealers via the benefits system.

Those of a more liberal persuasion may say that it’s bad for someone’s self-esteem to have to use a card which identifies them as an ex-prisoner. But is this any worse than any stigma already attached to a prison sentence or a community sentence?

On the contrary, the card might help to improve self-esteem by discouraging spending on addictive substances like alcohol, cigarettes and illegal drugs. Indeed, the card could be a helpful reinforcement to addiction treatment programmes on release from prison.

In small ways, the card could also help to improve financial literacy. For example, managing the account and calculating how much money remains available on the card. Improved financial literacy could also help to build self-esteem.

One day we might consider extending this use of card technology to the whole cash benefits system. In the same way that chip and pin cards helped to reduce the level of credit card crime, this card system could help to reduce benefit fraud, for example by a combination of chip and pin technology and having a photograph of the holder on the card.

If you think any of this sounds like a good idea, please let me know by posting a comment (just click on the blue comments below). Any improvements on the idea will also be gratefully received. If there’s enough of a positive response, I’ll be encouraged to write to the Ministry of Justice about the idea.


Tags: , ,
Posted in Benefits, Prison system | No Comments »