To think prison reform wasn't the top of most voters agenda?

[malificent7]

I get it is important due to overcrowding but I'm a bit surprised this is one of the first topics in the headlines.
I am all for youth hubs to target knife crime....excellent idea but releasing lots of prisoners who apparently shouldn't be there will give Reform lots of ammunition what do you think?

He sounds like a good man for the job. No, it's not top of voters agendas because prisons are hidden, literally locked away and, unlike healthcare, doesn't directly effect most people.

However the government is not there to do what every Joe bloggs wants them to do. They look at the big picture and see what needs doing.

Prisons need urgently addressing and reforming. Seeing the reports, high levels of overcrowding and drug related deaths and understaffing etc. Reoffending is really high too. I don't know how to fix it, build more prisons, make the profession of prison officer more attractive, and/or cut sentences. But this man who owns timpsons and has employed offenders just might.

Oh, is it James Timpson of Timpsons? I didn't realise. Then yes, that's an inspired decision.

I voted Labour on Thursday, but I’m also very concerned that letting criminals out of prison appears to be top of their to-do list. I hoped they had got past the bleeding-heart liberal mindset.

Obviously, more needs to be done to rehabilitate criminals, but my view is that the justice system also needs much stronger deterrents, particularly on issues like the epidemic of knife crime.

I agree - they are appointing specialists and those with knowledge and experience rather than the Tories who just looked after their mates!

Yes. Like Angela Rayner as secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities.

Someone who has first hand experience of growing up poor, with likely poor quality housing and also what it's like to have inadequate public services, inequality in the regions compared with London etc.

It was conservatives who said about letting people out early because of lack of capacity.

We don’t have any proper details about the Labour plans yet but it seems it’s more focused on the rehabilitation side of things and ensuring people don’t spend their life bouncing in and out of prison.

Agree re. James Timpson’s appointment.

We need to move away from soundbite media and all look at whats really happening.

With the current system, they won't be rehabilitated whenever they are released.

Prisons are full. There is <1% of space in the adult male prison estate. The prison service is paying £££ to the police to rent police station cells as overflow. Due to court backlogs and the early release measures which have had to be implemented to ease overcrowding, we’re now in the topsy-turvy position of some convicted criminals serving considerably less time in prison than those on remand awaiting trial, a proportion of which will inevitably be found not guilty. Early release and the implementation of a presupposition of non-custodial sentences under 12 months means an already massively-overstretched probation service has received an influx of additional cases to supervise in the community. Probation officers routinely have caseloads of 170 - 180%, which means they are essentially being asked to do the work of two people. How do you manage risk to the public effectively in those conditions?

Building new prisons is necessary and planned, but it is not an overnight fix and will not resolve the current capacity crisis. Meanwhile, overcrowding creates flashpoints for riots, and while you might not care about prisoners, at least think of the prison officers who have to deal with them. No space anywhere in the country means nowhere to move disruptive prisoners to in order to manage challenging situations.

The system is utterly broken, suffering from years of chronic underfunding because it’s never seen as a priority for voters…until your house is burgled or your son is mugged or your local councillor embezzles council funds. Then you want a fully-functioning criminal justice system, alright.

Of course prison is a deterrent it is the fact that criminals have a low chance of getting caught and when they are have very low chance of being sent to prison that's the problem. This has resulted in very high levels of crime and record people in prison - a vicious circle - and 15% are foreign prisoners. Of course there is money to build prisons its a matter of priorities. And if staff recruitment is hard the salary needs to be increased and stop private prisons which make a profit. Typical of the tories trying to do everything on the cheap and didn't value law and order particularly violence against women and high crime against the working classes.

I think it’s worth realising that prison reform DOES have such a huge impact on other areas, including homelessness, mental health, children in care….

the majority of those inside have either been within the care system or they have MH problems. If you can start to tackle one part of that Venn diagram then you can naturally help the other bits which then leads into education, health, employment, jobs….

to me this suggests that the government ARE looking at the bigger picture and thinking holistically about the wider societal impact.

I think this is where Keir's personal experience in the CPS is coming through. Of course he has a well informed view of the prison service and of course he can't wait for it to be the first thing he addresses now he has the opportunity to do so.

I'd do the same for my profession too if I could further down the line.

The conservative government declared a prison crisis last week. It was an urgent priority as people cant be sentenced

But conversely agree with Timpsons employing ex cons and maybe he's got some valuable insight. This needs to happen after prisoners have served a full sentence there are no short cuts.

It's not really about bleeding hearts, it's about trying to fix a justice system that lets everyone down - https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/chief-inspectors-blog/why-the-prison-population-crisis-is-everyones-concern/

It might have been closer to the top of your agenda this summer, as prisoners were released early due to dangerous overcrowding in prisons.

Which is the reason the Tories are giving internally for Sunak having called the election early. They wanted Labour to have to carry this.

Everything is broken. Housing, the NHS, the roads.

The new health minister has said that he won't pretend that the NHS is still the envy of the world and has also committed to start immediate talks with junior doctors to resolve their pay dispute.

Hospitals, and other public services have chronic staff shortages due to pay and conditions that have declined massively over the last decade or so. Improve pay and conditions, and it's not necessarily going to cost huge amounts as there will be less reliance on agency staff, less need for inefficient and expensive recruitment and training of new staff who don't stay long term and improved morale which could well increase productivity because people won't be as ground down by the current poor pay and conditions and the contempt from government and the public for their very existence.

There is a massive crisis in prisons, which along with the crisis in university funding has not made the headlines in this election. The government is right to focus on fixing this.

James Timpson gave an interview earlier this year where he talked about 1/3 of current prisoners should absolutely be in prison (violent criminals, etc), another 1/3 could be managed in the community - tagged, curfew orders, etc allowing them to keep their jobs and maintain family ties and support networks that help prevent reoffending. The remaining 1/3 should not be in prison at all - people jailed for not paying Council Tax/TV licence, shoplifters, etc. A lot of the final 1/3 are women and people suffering from addiction and mental health issues who with better support in the community can turn their lives around.

Those seats give them a huge mandate.

It seems before the election it was all - Labour aren't actually going to get a landslide. And now they have it's - well, not many people actually voted for them! 😂

Timpson, given his history of employing ex cons is likely to have a refreshing focus on rehabilitation and a much more effective probation service. We all benefit from that. Only by breaking the cycle can you cut offending long-term.

It's important to start at the end of the 'supply chain' on crime (ie prisons ) as it has 2 benefits

1. frees up space to prioritise the conviction and imprisonment of those likely to have committed more serious crimes like rape, who are currently out and about for 3-5 years owing to the huge courts backlog.

2. starts to break the reoffending by focussing on effective post prison handling so people don't have to reoffend because they can't get jobs or housing (which is what happens now).

Also government operates in parallel. It’s not as if all ppl and resources are being committed solely to prison reform and that nothing else will be done. It is a priority within the ministry of justice but not all government depts. the dept of health and social care and dept of education for example are already focusing on their priorities

I don't really understand the left wing mindset, but surely if you think you represent the vulnerable etc you should have more sympathy for the victims of crime than the criminals and want an effective system (unlike the utter mess the tories have left the justice system in which to me is because they don't care about the vulnerable). Whilst still accepting that many criminals come from care etc (althought left wingers don't seem to care about strong families and want us all dependent on the state which has failed these people!). Very confusing.

I am chuffed with the appointment but what about rehabilitation programmes within prisons?

surely if you think you represent the vulnerable etc you should have more sympathy for the victims of crime than the criminals and want an effective system

Where has anyone said that they don't sympathise with victims, and that they don't want an effective system?

It's literally impossible to have an effective system if you do not have the space to send people.
Even if you take prison out of it, there are people who haven't started their community service years after it was ordered, because there is chronic understaffing in the probation service.