Prisons At Capacity - Thanks A Lot Rishi

This would cause so much upset, for those who have been victims of crime.

Rishi has been PM for less than two years so I think it is unfair to lay this at his door.
Since 2020 a start has begun on providing more prison places.

It is down to years of neglect, changes in policy, by successive Governments.

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

Starmer has promised to solve the problem by jailing fewer convicted criminals and letting others out early.

Why Rishi? The rot set in long before he was appointed. It started with Cameron/Osborne and the starving of public services continued throughout the term of the Conservatives.

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?

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

"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

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?

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

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 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.

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?

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"

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.