Prisons in crisis (1)
01 January 2004
In February 2004 the UK prison population hit a record high of 74,543 - a rise of 2,167 in 2004 and 2,674 higher than the equivalent date in 2003. Almost twice as many people are in prison today as 25 years ago. The UK has a higher rate of imprisonment than any other state in western Europe - with 141 per 100,000 of its citizens incarcerated. More than 80 of the prison estate's 138 jails are officially overcrowded. Eleven are estimated to have exceeded the maximum safe capacity - they are Ashwell, Birmingham, Cardiff, Doncaster, Hull, Lancaster, Leicester, Lincoln, Stafford, Wandsworth, and Wormwood Scrubs. The number behind bars is now 500 higher than Home Office projections. On some estimates,the prison population could reach 87,200 in 2006-9, 500 more than the number of prison places expected to be available at that point. Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform
Trust, commented:
Prisons on the brink of safe overcrowding capacity should set alarm bells ringing for a government preoccupied with tough talk. To avoid a crisis, it must act now to divert petty offenders into effective community penalties, addicts into rehabilitation and the mentally ill into the health system, as well as curbing excessive sentence lengths and any needless use of custodial remand.
Consequent upon the increase in overcrowding has been a rise in the incidence of acts of suicide and self harm. The death by hanging of Vincent Palmer at HMP Woodhill in January was the eighth jail suicide in 2004 in England and Wales. Ninety-four prisoners took their own lives in 2003. Fourteen of the 94 were women - the highest number of female suicides in any one year. One half of the women who died were under 25, with almost one in three aged 19 or under. Almost 80 per cent were in custody for non-violent offences. The Prison Reform Trust contends that:
Female prisons are being used as psychiatric holding cells on the cheap. Solutions are not to be found by putting a little bit more money in to repaint some walls and increase prisoners' out-of-cell time. These women simply should not be in prison at all.
Although women make up 5 per cent of the total prison population they account for over 15 per cent of suicides and 45 per cent of incidents of self-harm. Of the 19 prisons in England and Wales which take women prisoners, it is Styal prison in Cheshire, New Hall in Yorkshire, Brockhill in Worcestershire and Bulwood Hall in Essex that have the worst records. In Styal prison there were six suicides in 2003 alone.
Since Labour came into office the prison population has risen by 24%. The number of adults serving sentences under 12 months is up by 160% since 1999. The growth in prison population and the rising numbers of incidents of self-harm and suicide do not appear to trouble the Home Secretary. Commenting on the suicide of Harold Shipman (for whose care he was ultimately responsible) David Blunkett observed that he had been tempted to crack open a bottle of champagne when he was first informed of Shipman's death. Frances Crook of the Howard League responded "At the time Blunkett was rejoicing in the death of one prisoner for whom he was responsible, two 18-year olds and a woman took their own lives. Did he rejoice about their deaths too?" The government, though, are convinced that, simply put, prison works. Writing in The Guardian on 3 February 2004 Blunkett stated:
I will be tough with violent offenders while getting smart in coping with the pressures on our outdated prison facilities. I am interested in creating special open prisons and hostels which would deny liberty but allow offenders to work and learn new skills.
Far from diverting prisoners from custody, it was clear that Blunkett intended these new places to be additional to the mainstream prison population. The "crisis" articulated in terms of overcrowded jails and prison suicides apparent to the prison reform lobby does not manifest itself as a crisis to D