The Guardian view on the Gauke review: prison isn’t working
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Version 0 of 1. A performative ‘tough on crime’ approach by politicians has been both ineffective and ruinously expensive It was as shadow home secretary in the early 1990s that Tony Blair came up with “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” – a characteristically New Labour formulation intended to finesse a perceived vulnerability on law and order issues. Yet in subsequent decades, governments of all stripes have focused overwhelmingly on the first clause, and treated the second as an optional extra. The disastrous result is a criminal justice system on the brink of collapse, as the former Conservative justice secretary, David Gauke, has outlined in his interim report on the sentencing system in England and Wales. Cumulative Westminster pressure for longer prison terms has led to a doubling of the incarcerated population in 30 years. More draconian sentencing and greater recall of released offenders who break parole have left the prison estate bursting at the seams and necessitated ad hoc early release schemes. Labour’s plans to deliver 14,000 extra prison places by 2031 – at a cost of £10bn – will not be enough to keep pace with rising numbers. Systemic overreliance on custodial punishment is not only ruinously expensive and unsustainable. It is also, as the report makes clear, dysfunctional and counterproductive. Our scandalously overcrowded prisons are dangerous and despairing places, which struggle to adequately recruit and retain overstretched prison officers. Resources to facilitate rehabilitative work for inmates are shamefully threadbare, and the cost of banging so many people up has diverted money from services dedicated to reducing the possibility of their reoffending. A vicious cycle of recidivism is the dismal and inevitable outcome. A proper national debate on a broken system is needed. This government-commissioned review will hopefully be the catalyst for one. Final recommendations will be made in the spring, but it is already clear that they will call for a renewed focus on prevention alongside punishment, and a more liberal approach to sentencing. As Mr Gauke rightly points out: “Punishment will always be a central aim of the criminal justice system, but it is not the only aim; and prison is not the only form of punishment.” A far less kneejerk approach to custodial sentencing, particularly in relation to more minor offences, would ease the intolerable pressure on the prison estate. It would also free up much-needed resources to invest in probation, rehabilitation, psychiatric services and addiction counselling. The public would be better protected as a result. After 30 years of performative “tough on crime” politics, making and winning this argument will not be easy. From Ken Clarke to Rory Stewart and Mr Gauke himself, successive Conservative ministers attempted in the 2010s to address the damaging explosion in the prison population. All fell foul of a hostile rightwing media, and their governments’ unwillingness to abandon a simplistically conceived “law and order” agenda. As they contend with the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, Sir Keir Starmer and his justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, will also face considerable political headwinds. But the case for reform is overwhelming. Sir Keir’s prisons minister, James Timpson – a former chair of the Prison Reform Trust – is a vocal advocate of lowering the rate of incarceration and improving conditions. When Mr Gauke’s final report is published later this year, Labour should have the courage of its convictions and act on it. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. |