UK: Prisoners top 60000
01 May 1997
The prison population of England and Wales passed the 60,000 mark in April, an increase of over 40% since 1992. The record 60,012 prisoners are a consequence of the former Conservative government's policy of enthusiastically locking up offenders and encouraging courts to hand out severe sentences. According to figures cited by Paul Cavadino of the Prison Reform Trust the UK has 116 prisoners for every 100,000 people compared with 89 in France, 84 in Germany, 67 in Holland and 65 in Sweden. In western Europe only Spain and Portugal jail proportionally more people than the UK.
The record figure included 2,580 women prisoners although it is possible that this number will decrease if the new government carries through plans to halt the jailing of fine defaulters, which is estimated to effect up to 1,300 women a year. In June the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Sir David Ramsbotham, expressed concern about the number of women in prison, particularly pregnant women prisoners. In a comment all the more germane considering the treatment of Roisin McAliskey, he said during a BBC radio interview: "I don't think prison is the right place...to have them [pregnant women] because they're confined conditions."
By June the prison population had increased by another 600 and the Prison Governor's Association issued an emergency statement supporting any governor who decided to refuse to accept new inmates if it created unnecessary risks to their prison.
Against this backdrop the controversial prison ship, HMP Weare, received its first inmates at Portland Harbour, Dorset in June (see Statewatch, vol 7 no 2). Twenty-one low-security prisoners arrived at the 100 foot-tall prison ship, which cost ?3.7 million, plus ?800,000 for transportation, and is still in the process of being refurbished.
Within hours, and to the considerable embarrassment of the prison authorities, a fire alarm forced the prisoners to be evacuated and held in a quayside pen. It was fortunate that it was a false alarm as the evacuation was a shambles and initially there was confusion over whether all twenty-one of the prisoners could be accounted for. After the Fire Service and prison authorities examined the ship it was discovered that much of the fire sprinkler system no longer worked. The ship is supposed to accommodate 400-500 inmates and take pressure off the overcrowded prisons.
The Prison Officer's Association has criticised the cost of the ship and expressed doubts about security while the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO) said that it highlighted the need to address the soaring prison population in England and Wales. The new Labour Home Secretary, Jack Straw, described the use of the ship as "unavoidable". He has also overturned Labour's election pledge, and his own his "fundamental objection", to private prisons by inviting security companies to open two new prisons.
A report by the Prison Reform Trust, published earlier this year, argued that millions of pounds were being wasted on prison sentences when there are more cost effective methods to deal with offenders outside the prison system. The report notes that it costs an average ?24,000 a year to lock up a prisoner compared with ?2,230 for a probation order and ?1,670 for a community service order.
"An expensive way of making bad people worse: custody v community sentencing" Prison Reform Trust (January) 1997; Independent 2.5.97; Guardian 12.6.97., 13.6.97.