This is HMP Maidstone.
Showing posts with label Prison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prison. Show all posts
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Today
Today I spent some time with a group of Open University students. The group included two OU graduates, one of whom is now studying for a Masters degree in International Development. They are part of a group of sixty or so OU students studying in HMP Swaleside, a B cat prison on the Isle of Sheppey. In total more than 100 men in Swaleside are studying through distance learning; that's more than 1 in 10 of the total prison population. Sadly changes in the way prison education is funded mean that they are unlikely to be given the support needed to continue studying. The Learning and Skills Council (soon to be replaced by the Skills Funding Agency) have shifted funding so that distance learning, any learning over NVQ level 2, isn't going to be supported by the education teams in prison. This means that anything above GCSE level will not be supported. Distance learning encompasses more than just Open University studies, it also includes vocational courses from providers such as ICS who offer City and Guilds accredited courses in electrical and mechanical engineering. Education in prison helps with rehabilitation and if people are to be fit for being released into society it's important that they have the skills and education needed to contribute. Curtailing the opportunities for learning can only lead to more men and women being unable to readjust to life outside.
Friday, 4 April 2008
Why Bradford?
Just to explain why I was in Bradford. It was a NIACE conference on offender learning, specifically eLearning policy. Fascinating stuff including an interesting presentation from the Head of Learning and Skills at HMP Wormwood Scrubs and it was great to meet Cos Michael from the Prisoners Education Trust.Monday, 29 January 2007
Prisons
Just some stuff to help when considering the latest information about the prisons crisis.
Firstly the spin seems to suggest that the reason that prisons are full is that more criminals are being caught and locked up. Not so. The average number of convictions is pretty constant at 1.75M/annum. The difference now against 10 years ago is that magistrates used to use a custodial sentence in 25% of cases - now they lock up 61% of offenders. Remember that magistrates deal with "minor" cases, theft of less than £1,000 for example.
Longer sentences are a greater deterrent. Not so. If prison were any sort of deterrent they wouldn't be full! The UK locks up more people per head of population than any other country in Europe. The chances of someone who serves a sentence of 3 months or less reoffending is 96% - so that works then doesn't it?
Prison places are at a premium and so they are only used to detain those who are a danger to society - people like Lindis Percy. She's 64 and this criminal mastermind is in Low Newton Jail on Co Durham, we're being protected from a woman who failed to pay a fine after being convicted of a breach of the peace at a protest outside a US base in Yorkshire. And today there was news that a man who should have been released and repatriated is still in jail because the home office hasn't applied for a copy of his birth certificate from his country of origin so that he can be resettled.
Cheap jibes? Not really addressing the main issues?
This government was elected on a platform about being tough on crime, etc, but they've singularly failed to plan for the effects of increasing sentences. A by-product of the current overcrowding is that education is being restricted in some prisons because of security fears. Rather than dealing with the causes of crime Tony's cronies have really just tried to lock up more people for longer as a sop to the law and order brigade. This serves only to ensure that we are banging up people with mental illnesses and real medical reasons not to be in jail and it's easy to keep building more cells rather than actually looking at how to reduce crime.
Firstly the spin seems to suggest that the reason that prisons are full is that more criminals are being caught and locked up. Not so. The average number of convictions is pretty constant at 1.75M/annum. The difference now against 10 years ago is that magistrates used to use a custodial sentence in 25% of cases - now they lock up 61% of offenders. Remember that magistrates deal with "minor" cases, theft of less than £1,000 for example.
Longer sentences are a greater deterrent. Not so. If prison were any sort of deterrent they wouldn't be full! The UK locks up more people per head of population than any other country in Europe. The chances of someone who serves a sentence of 3 months or less reoffending is 96% - so that works then doesn't it?
Prison places are at a premium and so they are only used to detain those who are a danger to society - people like Lindis Percy. She's 64 and this criminal mastermind is in Low Newton Jail on Co Durham, we're being protected from a woman who failed to pay a fine after being convicted of a breach of the peace at a protest outside a US base in Yorkshire. And today there was news that a man who should have been released and repatriated is still in jail because the home office hasn't applied for a copy of his birth certificate from his country of origin so that he can be resettled.
Cheap jibes? Not really addressing the main issues?
This government was elected on a platform about being tough on crime, etc, but they've singularly failed to plan for the effects of increasing sentences. A by-product of the current overcrowding is that education is being restricted in some prisons because of security fears. Rather than dealing with the causes of crime Tony's cronies have really just tried to lock up more people for longer as a sop to the law and order brigade. This serves only to ensure that we are banging up people with mental illnesses and real medical reasons not to be in jail and it's easy to keep building more cells rather than actually looking at how to reduce crime.
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