Prisons At Capacity - Thanks A Lot Rishi

Yes, it's turned into a bad down spiral. Full prisons - 3 to a one person cell - no rehabilitation or treatment = very high recidivist rate = more prisoners = pressure so great all resources go into more prison spaces = and so on.

Thanks madmumofboys. It’s no surprise that posters with first hand knowledge of prisons share your views

I have worked as a doctor in Strageways, Manchester in the past and one of my sons is a senior prison officer. The system is seriously broken. A lot of youngsters with learning difficulties and mental health problems, including addictions , or who have spent years in care end up in prison. We need a much more compassionate prison service to help mend so many broken people. We need to concentrate on rehabilitation and try and cut the recidivism rates. Currently our prisons are a disgrace to our country.

The prison system is underfunded (hence rehabilitation, education, etc., don't happen) and partly privatised (hence profit before investment). And youth services are non-existent after Tory cuts so the opportunities to keep youngsters on the right side of the law have disappeared.

In my younger days I was invited to visit Young Offenders institutions and a few prisons. The inmates appeared to be kept busy in the gardens, kitchens or learning a skill. Does this still exist? Locking people up with nothing to do in my book causes real problems. Unfortunately it seems there are fewer prison officers these days which doesn't help matters

I'm sure he knew: I don't think he's claimed not to have known: what's more interesting to ask is perhaps why it didn't come up big time before the election.

I can't recall it in the big debates or speeches, where the public had a chance to ask questions.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

I suspect swapping favours of one kind or another has been with us since prisons existed. Social media just made us more aware.

This from the Government’s Justice Data is helpful to understand the numbers that are imprisoned for differing crimes.

Mollygo

Starmer says he is shocked by the state of the prisons. What was his shadow cabinet doing to allow him to remain in such ignorance?

What was the shadow cabinet doing, you could say that, zilch I would hazard a guess.

What kind of woman behaves like that? Am I right in thinking his cell mate filmed it?
Well the kind of person who’d debase themself in this way is the kind of person who’d bring drugs and mobile phones in for inmates

Some female prison officers having sex in cells with inmates needs addressing too. I found that pretty shocking. The whole system seems broken.

Like so much else these days.

fancythat

These seem to be the Uk custodial sentences currently.

seven years’ imprisonment for a third Class A drug trafficking offence
three years for a third domestic burglary
five years for certain firearms offences
six months for a second offence of possessing a weapon
six months for threatening with a weapon

Domestic burglary & firearms.
Will people even go to jail?

15 years means "Life"

These seem to be the Uk custodial sentences currently.

seven years’ imprisonment for a third Class A drug trafficking offence
three years for a third domestic burglary
five years for certain firearms offences
six months for a second offence of possessing a weapon
six months for threatening with a weapon

Domestic burglary & firearms.
Will people even go to jail?

I am shocked that we cannot even rely on Labour for justice.

40% of a sentence?

So a 10 year sentence would mean 4 years?
Or would it be 2 years "for good behaviour?

Terrible.

OldFrill it was asked in reaction to this post

There will be exemptions for sexual and serious violent offenders.

The next poster wondered what would be classed as a non-serious violent offender
but so far, no explanation has been forthcoming.

I’m not surprised the govt is shocked by the state of the prisons. We’ve all known things were deteriorating but only first hand shows the extent

mae13

Why on earth not Rishi? He's been steering the ship - straight onto the rocks. And in all departments.

Evidence?

In 2019, then prime minister Boris Johnson pledged to create an additional 10,000 prison spaces by 2025. This was on top of the 10,000 places his predecessor Theresa May had promised to build in 2016

But the project has been bogged down by planning constraints with reports suggesting the extra spaces will not be delivered until 2030.

6,000 have been delivered so far.

Did you miss my previous post?

New Labour invented thousands more new offences and jailed more people than any other European country.

Should we be revisiting this? Why does the UK think that prison is always the answer?

"non-serious violent crime" l've seen this mentioned on gransnet a few times.
Can anyone give a source for this please?
I think it's more likely a misquote of "serious non-violent crime"

mae13

Releasing prisoners after just 40% of their sentence will create multiple problems. And yet, on the other hand, isn't it up to everyone to own responsibility for their actions, observe the law and thus stay out of prison?
What a pipe-dream......

Such a sensible idea, but it’s not going to happen.
It is the reason why fewer people are in prison than those who aren’t.
Saying there’s no room for you in prison would possibly seem more like an incentive for some, or an occasion to moan about cramped quarters and having to share.
I’m seriously keen to see what solutions for avoiding imprisonment will be offered and how they will be policed.
I’m still puzzled by what non-serious violent crimes might be.

Why on earth not Rishi? He's been steering the ship - straight onto the rocks. And in all departments.

Mollygo

Starmer says he is shocked by the state of the prisons. What was his shadow cabinet doing to allow him to remain in such ignorance?

Being cynical, it could be a case of like with the national finances.
I read on I think a Martyn Lewis article, he said that the finance minister will come out and say "oh the finances are worse than we thought, we need to do xyz".

So is the case now "the prisons are worse than we thought, we need to do xy and z with them" also.

valdali

I suppose you can be aware of it & still find it shocking.

Precisely. And what exactly was he supposed to do about it whilst in opposition?

valdali

I suppose you can be aware of it & still find it shocking.

Well I was, its been in articles in the newspapers for some time.

I suppose you can be aware of it & still find it shocking.