The prison crisis has hit a new level, with fewer than 100 places left in men’s prisons in England and Wales, according to the BBC.
The figures provided with the article aren’t very helpful, though, as they refer to male and female places: 89,383 in total, of which 84,596 are occupied by men and 3,638 by women. That leaves 1,149 places free but readers are encouraged to conclude that most of these are in women’s prisons.
And they were only current on Friday, before a weekend in which arrests at festivals pushed up the prison population and inmates were not released on Monday as they usually would have been (because of the bank holiday, perhaps).
More people are due to be released over the next few days, though – which should create more space. And the government’s bid to manage overcrowding by starting to release inmates who have served only 40 per cent – two-fifths – of their sentences will come into effect on September 10.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
This should lead to the release of 5,500 inmates in September and October. The policy does not apply to sex offenders, terrorists, domestic abusers and those convicted of some violent offences, for reasons that This Writer hopes are obvious.
But criminal courts are facing a backlog of tens of thousands of cases.
There are plans to build more prisons – in the long-term. And some in the justice system want a discussion on whether prison is the best way to punish people for certain offences.
But these are all stop-gap “sticking plasters” – temporary ways of dealing with a problem that was increased, perhaps deliberately, by the Conservatives when they were in government between 2010 and 2024; that of increasing criminality.
The Tories introduced increasingly draconian laws that could be said to have worsened overcrowding in the prison system; think of the anti-protest laws that have put peaceful protesters into jail for five year sentences.
It is possible that Conservative politicians did this because they had a policy of privatising prisons and they may have wanted to make running those institutions as profitable for private organisations as possible.
But private prisons now have a history of poor management that has made them a blackspot in UK society. This is typical of privatised public services in the UK.
To This Writer, the answer is two-fold.
Firstly, prisons have to be restored to entirely public control and new facilities need to be provided – if on a temporary basis.
Secondly, our hugely unequal society needs to be re-balanced so that the benefits of living in one of the world’s top economies can be spread among all of us, making criminal behaviour unnecessary for larger numbers of the population.
What is the Labour government doing about either of these?
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The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Prison crisis has hit a new level
The prison crisis has hit a new level, with fewer than 100 places left in men’s prisons in England and Wales, according to the BBC.
The figures provided with the article aren’t very helpful, though, as they refer to male and female places: 89,383 in total, of which 84,596 are occupied by men and 3,638 by women. That leaves 1,149 places free but readers are encouraged to conclude that most of these are in women’s prisons.
And they were only current on Friday, before a weekend in which arrests at festivals pushed up the prison population and inmates were not released on Monday as they usually would have been (because of the bank holiday, perhaps).
More people are due to be released over the next few days, though – which should create more space. And the government’s bid to manage overcrowding by starting to release inmates who have served only 40 per cent – two-fifths – of their sentences will come into effect on September 10.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
This should lead to the release of 5,500 inmates in September and October. The policy does not apply to sex offenders, terrorists, domestic abusers and those convicted of some violent offences, for reasons that This Writer hopes are obvious.
But criminal courts are facing a backlog of tens of thousands of cases.
There are plans to build more prisons – in the long-term. And some in the justice system want a discussion on whether prison is the best way to punish people for certain offences.
But these are all stop-gap “sticking plasters” – temporary ways of dealing with a problem that was increased, perhaps deliberately, by the Conservatives when they were in government between 2010 and 2024; that of increasing criminality.
The Tories introduced increasingly draconian laws that could be said to have worsened overcrowding in the prison system; think of the anti-protest laws that have put peaceful protesters into jail for five year sentences.
It is possible that Conservative politicians did this because they had a policy of privatising prisons and they may have wanted to make running those institutions as profitable for private organisations as possible.
But private prisons now have a history of poor management that has made them a blackspot in UK society. This is typical of privatised public services in the UK.
To This Writer, the answer is two-fold.
Firstly, prisons have to be restored to entirely public control and new facilities need to be provided – if on a temporary basis.
Secondly, our hugely unequal society needs to be re-balanced so that the benefits of living in one of the world’s top economies can be spread among all of us, making criminal behaviour unnecessary for larger numbers of the population.
What is the Labour government doing about either of these?
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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