Prisons don't work

As long ago as 1890, the Gladstone Commission introduced the idea that a primary aim of the prison system should be rehabilitation. Over the following two decades, there was a more liberal approach to incarceration, led in the early part of the 20th century by the then Liberal Party home secretary Winston Churchill.

"The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country," said Churchill.

The number of people incarcerated in prison fluctuated over the years as attitudes to punishment changed, standing at 11,000 during the interwar years before rising after World War II. Again, in the 1970s, it began to fall with the introduction of community sentences. But, since the 1980s, there has been the inexorable rise from 50,000 in 1987 to over 90,000 in prison today. Another interesting statistic concerns life-sentence prisoners, with just 200 in 1983 compared to 8,000 last year.

Blom-Cooper outlines the main aims of the criminal justice system as being to deter, rehabilitate and contain criminals. Deterrence comes in two forms, first to stop the individual criminal and, second, to deter others from wanting to follow his or her example.

There has been a tug-of-war between these different views over the years. At particularly unenlightened times, like the present, the over-riding aim has been containment of those thought a danger to the public.

The central theme of Blom-Cooper's book is that prison does not work. He argues that 60 per cent of the prison population should not be in prison, favouring restorative justice regimes with an emphasis on the criminal repaying his or her debt to the victim and society as a whole.

Community-based sentences form a central part of his thesis. Prison, he argues, should be the absolute last resort for "the few from whom society can be protected in no other way."

Blom-Cooper talks a lot of good sense in this book, offering a vision of a more humane practical system. My one criticism is that he underestimates the willingness of today's politicians to set criminal justice policy according to the latest leader in the Daily Mail or The Sun.

Home Office research has told successive home secretaries that prison does not work, but this has not stopped the incarceration rate rising to its highest ever level.

Tellingly, the foreword to the book is written by Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who compliments Blom-Cooper for his contribution to the debate, but then admits that the recommendations will make little impact on his thinking. After all, let's remember that Mr Straw has just committed to build three "titan" prisons housing 2,500 prisoners each.

Paul Donovan