November 16, 2007: Lord Chief Justice on Prisons and
Sentencing
Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the
Lord Chief Justice, has stated that the overcrowding of prisons in England
and Wales has reached its current crisis level as a result of
current sentencing policy. Speaking under the auspices of the
Howard League for Penal Reform, Lord Phillips acknowledged that prisons were "full to capacity". The theme of his speech, delivered yesterday, was 'How
Important Is Punishment?' He spoke frankly about the current crisis:
“Today, we are in a critical situation. The prisons are full
to capacity. Prisoners who go to court do not know whether they will return to
the same cell or even the same prison. In the prisons, cells designed for one
person that include a lavatory are being used by two, but prisons are still
being forced literally to close their doors to any further admissions. After
court, prisoners are being driven around for hours on end in a desperate
search for a prison that can squeeze them in. As often as not 200 or 300 are
spending the night in police or court cells. We simply cannot go on like
this.”
He was equally frank about the fiscal realities of
imprisonment:
“Prison provides a repository for many whose mental
condition is the cause of their offending. It is not the right repository for
them. 28% of those male prisoners who show symptoms of psychosis spend 23
hours or more in their cells every day. That is not the right treatment for
them. All are agreed that we need, by way of alternative to prison, more
accommodation where mentally disordered offenders are treated as patients
rather than confined as dangerous criminals.”
He also spoke in favour of community sentencing, and noted
that the most common requirement imposed under a Community Order, apart from
supervision, is unpaid work, know as ‘community payback’. In the year 2003-4, he stated, about 5 million hours of unpaid work were completed by
offenders. In 2004 to 2005 this had risen by about 30% to 6.6 million hours, and
51,206 unpaid work completions. The government plans to increase this to
10,000,000 hours by 2011. Lord Phillips stated his belief that
“... community payback is a desirable alternative punishment
to short terms of imprisonment for the following reasons:
- Imprisonment is expensive; the costs of community payback
are much lower;
- Community payback is, or should be, a visible form of
restorative justice. It does, what its name suggests; it makes reparation to
the community for criminal behaviour;
- Community payback is more likely to achieve
rehabilitation than a short sentence of imprisonment.”
Resources had to be directed to preventing reoffending at an
early stage:
“Money that is spent on punishing offenders is money that
could be spent on trying to prevent them from offending in the first place.
The question ‘how important is punishment’ is a relative, not an absolute
question. Punishment is, of course, important. It is hard to envisage any
society in which those who offended were not punished. But the 2003 (Criminal
Justice) Act rightly stipulates that, where a sentence of imprisonment is
imposed, it must be for the minimum period commensurate with the seriousness
of the offence. The scale of sentences is now largely determined by
Parliament. Where within that scale the facts of a particular offence fall is
the judge’s task. Parliament should, when altering that scale, have regard to
the resource implications of the changes that are proposed.”
He also raised concerns about mentally disordered offenders in
prison:
“Prison provides a repository for many whose mental
condition is the cause of their offending. It is not the right repository for
them. 28% of those male prisoners who show symptoms of psychosis spend 23
hours or more in their cells every day. That is not the right treatment for
them. All are agreed that we need, by way of alternative to prison, more
accommodation where mentally disordered offenders are treated as patients
rather than confined as dangerous criminals.”
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