The Prison Service - needs a stir

Two items of news this week on the prison service may show some of the problems and also possible solutions.

It seems that by a vote of 85% the Prison Offices Association has rejected a Government pay increase offer of 2.2%, a figure which most other groups perhaps reluctantly have accepted. The leadership of the POA even described the offer as "disgraceful".

In a posting on the Coffee House Blog yesterday, James Forsyth points out that Prison Officers in the Public sector receive 39% more than their counterpart officers in the private sector. When the value of their occupational pension is included the advantage rises to 61%.

The POA has traditionally been aggressive in bargaining, using its position to obtain leverage, and thus significant advantages for members. With such a cost differential, it could be that privatising the prison service could reduce this power, and also permit other reforms.

The second news item was of the Conservatives this week unveiling plans for prisons and sentencing, although privatisation was not among the proposals.

Apart from the excellent suggestion of selling off valuable sites at present occupied by Victorian prisons, and using the proceeds to build even more prison places to replace them where land is cheaper, in the process removing prisons from some residential areas, there were a raft of other policy suggestions.

An emphasis on rehabilitation. All public sector prisons, except the eight high security establishments , would be separated and put under an independent fee-earning Prison and Rehabilitation Trust. Individual prisons would be paid by results, with bonuses if offenders are not reconvicted within two years.

Savings from reduced reconviction rates would be ploughed back into the rehabilitation programme, and any funds generated by a prisoner's work could go towards reparation to vitims.

Sentencing would be clearer. Upon conviction the prisoner would be informed of the maximum and minimum length of confinement. Prison Governors would decide when they would be released between those dates, depending on prisoner conduct. A failure to engage fully in rehabilitation or to stay off drugs would mean a stay nearer or at the maximum. There would thus be an incentive for prisoners to earn early release through good behaviour, hard work and also reparation to victims.

Tougher community sentences. While working in the community there would be a uniform, and non-attendance would lead to loss of benefits.

The response of New Labour was predictable and confused, -"There is nothing new. They are following what we are doing. Things are not costed."

On the other hand Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, welcomed the proposals positively and linked it with small scale work the League was doing.

What is clear is that there are not enough prison places, and prisoners are being let out early for that reason, and frequently re-offending. In addition some prisoners are sharing small cells, while others spend time in police cells. David Cameron complained that, "A prisoner goes to court - they are told they have got a four year sentence and they are let out after two, so everybody feels cheated." At times in the recent past prisoners have even been confined to their cells for 23 hours in a day.

The system needs a stir, and this sounds a good way to start.