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?

Considering one South Wales prison has had 10 deaths in less than 3 months then absolutely there needs to be some major changes.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cl5514wypy8o.amp

Just for e.g: someone imprisoned for a non-violent, non-sexual crime, with a family with no criminal connections back home who has stood by them.

So lots of people caught with child abuse images and videos then.

Lovely. Can't wait to see them in my local park along with the already large intimidating groups of foreign men who gather to leer and jeer at women and children.

No, because that’s a sex crime.

I work w prisoners who DO need to be in, and whose rehab chances are much reduced by overcrowding and chaos.

of course it all depends on how they do it but the ambition and intention and determination is absolutely right.

You'd hope so wouldn't you?

Given the way it is sentenced, and that men can often avoid lengthy sentences if their wives stand by them and vouch for their 'character' I doubt it.

Quite a few 'MAPS' maintaining that it isn't a crime if they don't actually touch a child.

Wow there’s some amazing theories one here.

I think appointing Timpson is a great start. Getting the right people in shouldn’t be a surprise or an amazing thing but it shows just how bad the last lot were

Actually doing something rather than coming up with catchy slogans is also so refreshing.

Having people in charge who have come from normal backgrounds not over privileged idiots.

Think the tories are going to be out for a while

Having people in charge who have come from normal backgrounds not over privileged idiots.

Who are you thinking of? Is this just a “But, but Boris!” comment?

That’s not strictly true; the prison population has risen by over 80% since the 1990s despite a reduction in crime figures, so the broad trend - especially in the past 14 years, until the enforced changes of the last few months to respond to the capacity crisis - has been that we’ve been locking up more people for longer for less serious offences. In addition, automatic recalls mean an increase in the people on licence recalled to prison for any offence, regardless of how comparatively minor it might be or how much it might differ from their index offence, who then have to wait for a parole board hearing for release despite often being at low risk of harming anyone but themselves. Disparity in sentencing outcomes is also a factor (minority ethnic and female offenders demonstrably receive, on average, harsher or longer sentences than white males for the same offences).

I think it's very good and doesn't matter it was not a main issue at election time I sure we all agree something needs to be done.

How he will tackle the boats is something else entirely. If it was so easy to solve it would be done already. That's going to be interesting and he literally has the wolf at his door in the commons over that one, holding him to account.

I cannot see how they will bring numbers down.

What part of “non-sexual crime” did you not understand?

So much shit spouted on this thread

Do you understand how statistics work? The number of prisoners/criminals who identify as trans is so small that it will not make a meaningful difference to any statistics.

we had a young person in our extended family in prison recently. Should never have been custodial, but thats a different story. Young man, goddamn stupid caught up in the moment impulsive crime occurred at age 16, took 3 years to get to court, and had very clear familial neglect / ADHD /MH issues

We HOPED that he would get, and he tried REALLY hard to source, both the MH support and the youth training that he had been promised as part of the 'rehabilitation' package that we were assured he would get, but despite asking for anything - he was willing to do the access courses in any trade / academics/ anything - he was constantly told no - too late, too soon, not running.......

as a result he simple ended up there for a year rotting and traumatised - beaten up a couple of times, belongings stolen, and keeping his head as low as possible to not draw attention to himself.

So yes I guess all the PUNISH THEM HARSHLY people will be happy that he served his year, to what benefit? What has he gained from the experience, what insights or aspirations to change, what different outlook and choices?

Yes, he doesnt ever want to go back - so some would say that was a success. But there are many many young people inside who he met for whom its asadly just a regular part of their lives, because they just dont get any help to take a different path on release. And thats surely the bigger issue - offering people real rehabilitation. The countries who have the best reoffending rates follow this pattern - but then their systems are not built on angry mob vindication and profit.

Also I do agree that there are some crimes for which rehabilitation and release are not suitable at all, and I would be tempted to toughen up on those, if we were able to get an effective rehabilitation service working for lesser crimes.

It’s not true that the last 14 years has seen a big increase in the prison population. It has risen in the last three years, but the most marked and consistent increase was under Blair.

Not that this issue is necessarily a party political one: I don’t believe sensible penal reform should be contentious.

The best single policy change we could have is the legalisation of cannabis and enlightened policy towards users of harder drugs. Plus life sentences for importers and major dealers.

Actually it will make a difference in one very specific and significant dataset. The percentage of convicted female sex offenders is tiny as a proportion of the whole, and the number of those not acting in joint enterprise with a male offender smaller still. The percentage of trans-identifying male prisoners convicted of a sexual offence is disproportionately higher than the general male prison population (funny that; almost as if predatory men will exploit any opportunity to try to gain access to further victims, such as claiming a feminine gender identity when they thought it might get them housed in a women’s jail 🤔) so it won’t take much to make it appear that there has been a huge %age increase in female sex offenders.

(It’s a bit like the Tavistock referrals situation: the raw numbers of girls being referred for gender confusion/distress were still very small, but it was a 4000% increase on a previous stable trend of more boys than girls, which should have raised alarm bells among staff long before Dr Cass brought it to a point it could no longer be ignored.)

Erm, have you even looked at the list of the new Cabinet appointments?

Like who, compared with who?

Yeah his huge mandate. Turnout of 60% of eligible voters, of whom 20% voted Labour isn’t a huge mandate. The OP is sort of right, they don’t have buy-in to release large numbers of prisoners and if they want a second term, it is probably a bad idea.

Yes. They are overwhelmingly from normal backgrounds. The lowest ever percentage of people who went to independent school. What’s your point?

the Portugal model seems to be successful

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/dec/03/drug-use-is-a-health-problem-inside-one-of-the-worlds-oldest-legal-consumption-rooms

transformdrugs.org/blog/drug-decriminalisation-in-portugal-setting-the-record-straight

According to that logic, they don't have buy in to do anything.

So maybe they should just do nothing?

I certainly agree with your last paragraph, more people will leave prison addicted to drugs than ever went in. We need more drug treatment centres and programmes as an alternative to prison for those whose criminality is based on funding their addiction, and also to understand and tackle drug addiction against the wider context of poverty, homelessness, poor mental health and the rest.

The last 14 years worth of Cabinet appointments work be a good place to start.

No, sex offenders are excluded from any early release scheme.

And this highlights the issues in the current system.

it sounds like some of these issues should have been identified before the crime took place, after it took place he could have been immediately supported to aid rehabilitation and building a future. Instead he became victim of the flawed system.

(my comments are very much about the failings of the systems overall not of the family support from you and others)