The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The options sent to the Home Secretary include the Government ordering the executive release of prisoners, postponing the refurbishment of jail wings and even delaying the planned closure of the country's only prison ship.

The rapid rise in prison numbers this year is causing mounting concern in the Home Office. Martin Narey, the head of the National Offender Management Service, has put part of the blame for the increasing numbers on judges and magistrates.

But he has told ministers that judges and magistrates are only reacting to the tough language on crime by politicians and reflecting public concern about offending and antisocial behaviour. One official said that judges and magistrates were like a weather vane in the way in which they reacted to the current political and public climate with its emphasis on tackling yobbish behaviour.

Richard Garside, of the Crime and Society Foundation, a think-tank on crime policy, said that it was clear that judges and magistrates were reacting to politicians. "The real drivers of sentencing policy are not the judges but politicians. If politicians call for ever tougher sentences and action, then judges, within the broader context of sentencing policy and their own independence, are clearly going to be influenced by them," he said.

A briefing paper prepared for the Home Secretary after prison numbers exceeded 76,000 last week outlines a selection of options in the event of continuing increases. The paper, which Mr Clarke will study over the the Whitsun parliamentary recess, puts forward a variety of options, including the executive release of prisoners before the end of their sentence or extending early release of offenders on curfews.

Executive release was last used under the Conservatives in the early 1980s and is probably considered a non-starter in the current political climate. But the Government could extend early release under the home-detention curfew scheme introduced by Jack Straw to ease an earlier prison population crisis. Under it, offenders are released from jail 41/2 months before the end of their sentence, electronically tagged and put under curfew.

There are 3,300 prisoners released on home-detention curfew and the numbers would increase if the early-release period were extended beyond 41/2 months. The paper also suggests more new jails, though this would not deal with the immediate problem as it takes years to commission and build them. Jails at Peterborough and Ashford, Surrey, have opened in the past year but the programme to build new jails has ended as Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, has refused to provide funds.

Other options for dealing with the population problem, which is worst in overcrowded local jails, include recategorising offenders more quickly so that they can be moved into low-risk open prisons; bringing into use wings and landings which have been mothballed; and postponing refurbishment of accommodation.

One idea being looked at is delaying the closure of The Weare , the prison ship moored in Portland Harbour, near Weymouth, Dorset. The Prison Service announced three months ago that it intended to close the jail holding 400 low-risk prisoners this year.

Another option is for ministers to urge courts to make greater use of non-custodial sentences. Mr Narey has tried to persuade judges and magistrates throughout England and Wales to make greater use of community penalties.

A Home Office spokesman said that although the prison population "has reached an all-time high", the National Offender Management Service was able to handle the record numbers in jail. He said: "Whilst the prison population has risen sharply in the last few weeks growth has been slower in the past 14 months."

The spokesman added that 2,600 new spaces had opened and that by 2007 the Prison Service would have a capacity to hold 80,400 inmates.

THE INSIDE STORY
* Total jail population: 76,035

* 128 state-run jails

* 11 privately run jails

* Average cost per prisoner a year in state jail: £25,718

* Average cost in private jail: £31,502

* Total number of people sent to jail in 2003: 93,500

* 24,280 offenders serving four years or more in 2003, a 109 per cent increase in a decade

* Average length of custody, excluding life, given at Crown Court rose from 20.4 months in 1993 to 26.8 months in 2003

* It costs more than £2 billion a year to run Prison Service

* Average age of those going to jail was 27

* 5,420 life-sentence prisoners, of whom 26 told they will die in jail

* 25 per cent of jail population is from minority ethnic groups

Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.
Webpage has a graph showing the increase in UK's prison population from 1997-2005 (up over 25%)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1634669,00.html