I Would Rethink Crime & Punishment by...
To coincide with the publication of Rethinking Crime & Punishment: The Report we asked a cross-section of public figures and key opinion formers to complete the statement: ‘I would rethink crime and punishment by...’ Their answers are varied, thought-provoking and surprising – especially as our contributors include people who don’t normally take part in the debate on how to deal with crime. Reassuringly there is much in common between their thoughts, and the findings and recommendations from RCP’s substantial work.
I Would Rethink Crime & Punishment by...
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Tony Adams
I would rethink crime and punishment by doing more to help people with drink or drug problems. I spent time in prison through a drink-related incident. I don’t really remember much about the whole incident but know that I got in my car, I was totally smashed out of my head and before I knew it I had crashed. I was completely out of control.
My sentence, just before Christmas, was to be sent to prison – it was certainly a good advert for the drink drive campaign that year – a high profile person in prison, but the long and short of it was that I was completely out of my head and out of control – a simple case of a man having problems with alcohol. I spent three months in prison and astonishingly received no education in the areas of alcohol and drug abuse. Inside prison I was with people with similar problems to mine, they had been smashed out of their heads on mixtures of alcohol, cocaine, crack or whatever – but ultimately they had committed crimes that in the clear light of day would not have done. My experiences since being sober have led me into prison again – this time on a sobriety mission. I visit prisons, talk about my life – from how it used to be, what happened and where I am today – hoping that people can identify with some of my experiences and that it will give them the courage and belief to get back on the correct path in life. Statistics have shown that if you give people education on the drugs they have been using and also introduce them to a high level of physical and calming exercise there is a dramatic fall in the amount that reoffend. Tony Adams Former England footballer, Founder of the Sporting Chance Clinic
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None of this is meant to excuse the crimes they have committed but it should spur us to action. Providing the right interventions, earlier in life, will be far more cost-effective than prison – and will do far more for the victims of crime. Gaps in current social care services cost the taxpayer £7.83 billion per year – a large portion of this cost coming through offending. At the same time in the USA, a study found that every dollar spent on tackling poverty saved seven dollars in other costs, such as criminal justice.
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Victor Adebowale
I would rethink crime and punishment by rethinking social care and regeneration. This is not a moral argument but an economic one. By tackling poverty and social exclusion effectively we can prevent a great deal of crime – reducing its impact on individuals, communities and the taxpayer. One third of prisoners have a severe alcohol dependency and two thirds have mental health problems. One third of prisoners say they were in local authority care as a child. For many, prison merely serves as an example of how little value current welfare services add to their lives.
In the long term, providing effective social care that meets people’s whole needs, including education and employment will be more effective than any criminal justice programme. Lord Adebowale Chief Executive, Turning Point
Jonathan Aitken
I would rethink crime and punishment by reallocating resources within the prison service budget to give a higher priority to rehabilitation, retraining for future employment, and an improvement in literary standards. During my own prison journey I was struck by the astoundingly high levels of illiteracy among prisoners. Tests show that about a third of all prisoners read and write at skill levels below those of 11 year-old schoolchildren. I would pursue the idea of prisoners being able to earn extra remission as a result of achieving NVQ qualifications, computer skills and higher literacy standards. Jonathan Aitken Former Cabinet Minister
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In essence we need to develop and promote social behaviour as much as stopping anti-social behaviour. This means for example, putting social behaviour as a core curriculum subject with as much status as given to literacy and numeracy. In addition we need to develop parenting skills amongst youngsters so that they have the emotional literacy to enable their children to get the best out of their parents and their schooling. This would have to lie alongside an even more profound expansion of SureStart and the tracking, monitoring and assisting of all under-fives in appropriate families. One pound spent in early intervention will save millions of pounds on policing, the courts, drug rehabilitation, social work, prison and MPs’ and Councillors’ time, let alone the loss and distress suffered by ordinary citizens when we fail as a society to intervene effectively and early enough. Graham Allen MP Member of Parliament for Nottingham North 8
Graham Allen
I would rethink crime and punishment by tackling the causes as much as the symptoms. This is seen at its most obvious by our much needed, effective attack on anti-social behaviour. Anyone who wants to seriously inhibit anti-social behaviour will regress the problem back to secondary and then primary school. Even then we must take it further into the under-fives.
Eric Allison
Imagine that you are ill. You see your GP who tells you that you have, say a stomach disorder and prescribes tablet X. A month later, your condition has worsened and you return to the surgery. The doctor tells you to give the medicine time, increases the dose and sends you on your way. A further month goes by and now, you are in agony. Another appointment. You are in the waiting room talking to another patient, who says he has gout and that the tablets the doctor gave him do not appear to be working. To your astonishment, you find that he too is on tablet X. You take a spot survey of those in the waiting room; they are all on the same medicine and not a soul feels better for it. Surely a case for the General Medical Council to consider striking this clearly dangerous doctor from the register? An unlikely scenario? Yes, of course. Except that it is a script that is written hundreds of thousands of times a year within the penal area of our criminal justice system. Everybody who gets sent to prison, man, woman, or child receives basically the same treatment; a treatment that has proved time and time again, not to work. There are 75,000 people in prison and 75,000 different reasons why they are there. Yet they are all on tablet X. Is there a doctor in the house? Eric Allison Prisons correspondent, The Guardian
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The punishment for smoking marijuana should be different to that for taking heroin to stop a number of social marijuana smokers turning to heroin simply because it can be flushed out in 24 hours as opposed to 28 days, thus avoiding any adverse drug testing result. Lord Archer
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Jeffrey Archer
I would rethink crime and punishment by categorising defendants during trial – sending first offenders, with no history of violence or drugs, directly to an open prison. I would pay inmates the same for all jobs, including education – if it was as financially rewarding to learn and write, they would have more options on release, and may be less likely to re-offend.
Vera Baird
I would rethink crime and punishment by focussing offenders on the harm they have done through mediation with their victim or other victims. Community work, if necessary whilst tagged, is better than prison for all but the dangerous. Women self-harm in prison; men get caught up in more crime and both pass delinquency onto the next generation. Vera Baird QC MP Member of Parliament for Redcar
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I would restrict imprisonment to dangerous offenders and shift the criminal justice system strongly towards rehabilitation. All offenders should receive high quality help with education, employment, accommodation, mentoring, mental health, addiction problems, offending behaviour and maintaining family ties. This would reduce crime far more effectively than a punitive approach. Paul Cavadino Chief Executive, Nacro
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Paul Cavadino
I would rethink crime and punishment by placing the main emphasis of crime reduction policy on promoting social inclusion. This means support for families under stress, effective pre-school education, reducing school exclusion, specialist education and training programmes for at risk young people, well structured youth activity and supported accommodation provision for homeless young people and adults.
We also need to robustly reinforce discipline in schools, starting with nursery schools. Unless this issue is tackled now, the next generation will reap a whirlwind. More people, especially young people, also need to be kept out of the court system altogether including through restorative justice. We also need to stop politicians from meddling too much and too often, to educate the media who are often unfair and provocative, to mentor selected offenders under judicial supervision and to send less people to prison. His Honour Judge Christopher Compston
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Christopher Compston
I would rethink crime and punishment by within six months, releasing at least 20,000 prisoners from prison on parole. The prisons are grossly overcrowded and cannot do their job properly.
Prison should be a scarce resource used only for serious and violent offenders who are a danger. At present it feeds the crime problem by encouraging sloth, malevolence and violence. Frances Crook Director, The Howard League for Penal Reform
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Frances Crook
I would rethink crime and punishment by abandoning the ineffective concept of punishment which is simply revenge in camouflage. A whole new system should help to create a safer society, to prevent crime and protect victims. People who commit offences should take responsibility and make amends for what they have done.
James Gaddas
I would rethink crime and punishment by differentiating between those criminals incapable of rehabilitation, who should be taken out of society and kept under supervision and constant assessment, and the opportunist criminal, who makes up by far the greater part of the prison population. Opportunist criminals must be given the chance, whilst inside, to study, train and receive counselling so as to eventually return into the community with less chance of reoffending. To date we have fallen between two stools – the ‘imprisoning as few as possible and only for the most extreme crimes’ lobby, and the ‘bang them up and throw away the key’ parade. Neither is the answer. I feel that ‘zero tolerance’ would be a worthwhile step. If we can tackle the youth offender committing relatively minor offences, before he or she progresses to more serious crime, then hopefully we can reduce the criminal population whilst at the same time safeguarding our communities. We must not take away hope of a future, equally we must ensure that the general public are aware that the whole issue of incarceration is taken seriously. James Gaddas Actor, Bad Girls 23
Where possible, family contacts should be maintained – the system should be humane but austere. The tremendous work done by prison officers and the probation service must be recognised. Support to prevent reoffending should continue beyond the prison gate to reduce the likelihood of a return to crime. Cheryl Gillan MP Member of Parliament for Chesham and Amersham, Conservative Shadow Home Office Minister
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Cheryl Gillan
I would rethink crime and punishment by ensuring the criminal justice system protects citizens and punishes offenders: it should also provide rehabilitation and reduce reoffending. Offenders often face complex problems, such as addiction and mental illness. The custodial system must allow for more successful interventions to prevent reoffending. These can include restorative justice, faith-based support, regular education and community involvement.
David Harker
I would rethink crime and punishment by increasing skills. Only one in five prisoners have literacy levels higher than an 11 year-old’s, and when in prison people lose touch with their families. This makes it difficult for prisoners to cope with life’s practical problems. However, when they are better equipped to do so, offending rates drop substantially. Citizens Advice Bureaux can help. Our advice can help sort out problems, preventing family breakdown, debt and the loss of a home to return to. Our work on financial literacy can help skill people to deal with future problems themselves. David Harker Chief Executive, Citizens Advice
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We must find a new way and the political will to transfer resources to tackle the underlying roots of crime. To achieve this we must redirect resources to the provision of mainstream preventative services, as has happened with public health. Those issuing punishments are largely disconnected from the expensive consequences of their decisions. Let’s reconnect them so they begin to work with local communities to decide whether it’s better to spend a pound on immediate punishment or on sustainable prevention. Roger Howard Chief Executive, Crime Concern
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Roger Howard
I would rethink crime and punishment by shifting the emphasis from enforcement and justice to early intervention and prevention. We can do more about incentivising changes in behaviour rather than simply relying on increasing the use of penalties.
Douglas Hurd
I would rethink crime and punishment with a determined effort to stop the rise in prison sentences. Judges and magistrates send more people to prison for longer, not because there is more crime but because they feel public opinion demands it. So our prisons are overcrowded as never before and the record numbers grow all the time. In these conditions the chances of reforming a prisoner are slim. More than half reoffend within two years of release. Prison has not ‘worked’ for them or for the community. These are two keys to progress – provide those who pass sentences with convincing alternatives to imprisonment – and do everything possible to help prisoners on release to find a job and a home so that they do not immediately drift back into crime. The Right Honourable Lord Hurd Former Home Secretary
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Making offenders see the effect on victims – always, in every case – would be a good start. Ensuring active education for prisoners, particularly young prisoners and detainees, would be another. Stephen Irwin Chairman, General Council of the Bar of England and Wales
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Stephen Irwin
I would rethink crime and punishment by taking party politics out of policy making, and making policy based on evidence of what works. And what works is whatever is best at stopping people reoffending.
Erwin James
I would rethink crime and punishment by first of all taking the responsibility of punishment, including the prison system, away from the main political arena. The only political involvement in my model would be from an all-party home affairs committee that would engage with and oversee what I would ensure was a fully independent body responsible both for sentencing policy and prison conditions. This body, let’s call it the Prisons and Sentencing
Council (made up perhaps of teachers, social workers, doctors, beat police officers, probation officers and academics), would base its policy decisions on information gathered by its dedicated teams of specialist researchers. The courts would carry out sentencing according to these policies and the court appearance would be the time for the person in the dock to be subjected to public opprobrium and private shame. The arrival at prison for those sentenced to a period of incarceration would mark the beginning of the rebuilding process. Prisons would be establishments that would encourage personal development and responsibility through therapeutic counselling, academic education and the pursuance of creative activities. The prison journey, however long it might be, would be constructive and geared to lead to the eventual successful reintegration of the imprisoned person back into the community. Erwin James Columnist, The Guardian
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The public is generally unengaged in this debate and presumes that the answer lies primarily in more effective detection and conviction, combined with tougher punishment. The gulf between practitioners and public has led to the constant cycle of changing policy and lack of commitment even to promising new initiatives. Such a programme should include teaching in schools and adult involvement in prison visits, courts and victim contact. When, and only when, there is a common perception of the nature of the problem and the effectiveness of current practices will there be popular support for the innovation that exists among practitioners. Derek Lewis Former Director General of the Prison Service 36
Derek Lewis
I would rethink crime and punishment by undertaking a long-term programme to engage the public on the issue. Among those involved with the criminal justice system, it is common ground that concerted effort needs to be directed at the causes of crime and that more effective responses are needed.
Ken Livingstone
I would rethink crime and punishment by making sure that every Government department and public organisation has a commitment to reducing crime and disorder built into their work programmes. Truly joined up working like this is absolutely key. Everyone needs to understand that while the police can lead the fight against crime, they can only do this with the active support of the organisations and people they work to protect. Ken Livingstone Mayor of London
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I strongly disapprove of capital punishment and solitary confinement and I feel that we need to find new ways of ultimately showing and giving prisoners socio-economic choices that they may never have had before. I realise that this could be costly but I believe education and re-education is the key to a safer society. Charlotte Lucas Actor, Bad Girls
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Charlotte Lucas
I would rethink crime and punishment by putting more of an emphasis on re-education and rehabilitation in our prisons.
Juliet Lyon
I would rethink crime and justice by reducing the reach and aspirations of the criminal justice system and putting prison back where it belongs – as a place of absolute last resort. A tragic unintended consequence of improving prison, before reserving it for serious and violent offenders only, has been to turn it into an under-resourced, capacious social service struggling to dispense drug treatment, low level mental healthcare and basic education. I would call on other public services to shoulder their shirked responsibilities and invest more in preventative work and support for vulnerable families. Above all I would look to an authoritative, confident Government to reduce fear of crime and create a justice system based on proportionality and fairness not vengeance and populism. Juliet Lyon Director, Prison Reform Trust
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We know enough about drugs and crime to state that British society faces a generational time bomb – one that will produce millions more potential criminals out of the vulnerable and marginalised if we don’t act now. Peter Martin Chief Executive, Addaction
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Peter Martin
I would rethink crime and punishment by recognising the need to co-ordinate a massive response on the hidden harm of drug and alcohol misuse, with early intervention and family work. Current data tells us 43 per cent of drug misusers are parents. Seventeen per cent of these are parents at the age of 15-19 years. 350,000 children are now at risk from parental drug misuse – and are seven times more likely to use drugs themselves. One million are at risk from parental alcohol misuse.
Bill Midgley
I would rethink crime and punishment by ensuring that we spend much more time, energy and initiative on examining the causes of crime, and doing this in practical terms rather than merely listening to the rhetoric of politicians. There is little doubt that the majority of crime comes about because of social deprivation which is unacceptable in one of the world’s richest economies. Tackling that end of the spectrum and ensuring that there are opportunities for all in terms of education and employment will help redress the balance, whilst marginalising that comparatively smaller number of individuals who need separating from society, and from whom society needs protection. Bill Midgley President, British Chambers of Commerce
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Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster
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Cormac Murphy-O’Connor
I would rethink crime and punishment by not simply starting from where we find ourselves now. We should re-imagine our response afresh, putting the needs of the victims of the crime, and the needs of the perpetrators of crime and their families, at the centre of our debate.
Theodore Mutale
I would rethink crime and punishment by making it possible for all people sentenced to a custodial sentence for the first time to have a six month community programme. Only those who fail or breach the order should be considered for prison. In addition, all prison sentences should be linked to a rehabilitation programme and those who do well should have early release. No young person – less than 21 years-old – should serve a prison sentence without being tried out on a community order first. Dr Theodore Mutale Consultant Child and Adolescent Forensic Psychiatrist, Member of the Youth Justice Board
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Jonathan Myerson
What’s the problem with Youth Justice? In a word – according to Elton John, the hardest word – young offenders never have to say Sorry. Yes, Referral Panels are a step in the right direction. But after his first offence, the average teenage-onteenage mugger sits and listens to his brief make tortuous, often legalistic excuses on his behalf but never has to face up to it and say I Did It, I’m Sorry, It Was Wrong. Meanwhile, months pass between crime and trial and by the time sentence is announced, the new offender has usually already re-offended and is lost to any hope of rehabilitation. So my proposal is simple… Henceforth the mugging victim will have a choice: he can make a statement and proceed through the courts OR the offender can be brought before him, in a controlled setting, and the offender has to look him in the eye and say a Sorry. Genuinely. And if he does, that’s the end of it. No further action. It won’t be easy – Elton was right – but next time, it might even make him think twice. Jonathan Myerson Novelist, screenwriter, Labour Councillor in Lambeth and a former Youth Court Magistrate 53
Crime rates remain unacceptably high, communities are more divided than ever, and many people feel powerless and afraid. I want to put power back into the hands of ordinary people and get them involved in solving the problems on their doorstep. This should be done by allowing communities a greater role in holding the police to account, by expanding restorative justice schemes to deal with antisocial behaviour, and by giving the community a say in the work carried out by offenders. I have no problem with tough prison sentences for violent offenders, but I find it unacceptable that we do so little to rehabilitate those we lock up. I want to see an end to the scandal of individuals leaving prison still unable to fill in a basic job application form. Expansion of education and training should go hand in hand with strong incentives to learn the skills needed to break out of the cycle of crime. Mark Oaten MP Member of Parliament for Winchester, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary
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Mark Oaten
I would rethink crime and punishment by shifting the focus away from imprisonment and establishing the principle that offenders should wherever possible pay back their debt to society through supervised work in the community.
Charles Pollard
I would rethink crime and punishment by mainstreaming and integrating restorative justice fully into our criminal justice system. Unless we bring all dimensions and consequences of criminal offending into our courts and criminal procedures – not just punishing offenders but also giving victims their place and engaging local communities – we will never tackle crime effectively. Ninety per cent of crime victims find restorative justice helps them get over what happened. Many offenders stop or reduce their criminal activity after being confronted directly with the impact of their crimes on others. And citizens who have participated become more engaged themselves with upholding standards in their local communities. The facts speak for themselves. Restorative justice is an idea whose time has come. Sir Charles Pollard Former Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, Member of the Youth Justice Board, Chairman, Justice Research Consortium
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Women experience many injustices in the justice system. Looking through a gender lens is the first step in creating a fairer system for all. Dr Katherine Rake Director, Fawcett Society
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Katherine Rake
I would rethink crime and punishment by looking at it through a gender lens. Violence against women is far more widespread than people think – domestic violence accounts for a quarter of all violent crime – but perpetrators are rarely brought to justice. Far fewer women than men turn to crime and they do so for very different reasons. Women’s prisons are filled with people who have experienced abuse, poverty, disadvantage and poor mental health. Few women working at the top has meant that justice is ‘man-made’.
David Ramsbotham
I would rethink crime and punishment by rethinking whether the framework of what is needed to improve the way that punishment fits the crime is in place. All that is needed is the political will to flesh it out. The numbers in custody must be reduced. Attention must be paid to ensuring that there are sufficient numbers of trained supervisors available to oversee all alternatives to custody. These should include many of the programmes currently conducted in prison such as education, work skills, drug treatment programmes and teaching sustainable life styles to the mentally disordered. Sir David Ramsbotham Former Chief Inspector of Prisons
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Older children, of up to 18, would also be removed from the care of the prison service and the young offender institutions that produce a grievous toll of unhappiness and suicide. Treating children more humanely would send a powerful message to a system inclined, across the board, to focus too much on punishment and too little on rehabilitating the vulnerable of all ages. Mary Riddell Columnist, The Observer
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Mary Riddell
I would rethink crime and punishment by taking children of 14 and under out of a criminal justice process designed for adults. Child courts would address welfare issues and place those found guilty of grave offences, such as killing, in local authority custody, close to home.
Anita Roddick
I would rethink crime and punishment by putting an end to the myth that prison works. Politicians must stop looking to America for tough ways of dealing with crime and they need to show leadership to do what’s right for us all. I’d feel safer knowing that crime prevention measures are in place, alienated communities are socially included and that mentally ill and drug dependent offenders are treated not punished. It’s a crime too that so many vulnerable women are in jail. We waste so much human potential if we are unimaginative when responding to crime. Dame Anita Roddick Founder, The Body Shop
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Let justice be done and revenge be had, but let us stop kidding ourselves that punishment axiomatically cuts crime. Given the vast investment in prisons and other punishments it is extraordinary how little scientifically credible research has been done on its effectiveness in reducing wrongdoing. Intuitively fear of punishment must have some deterrence – but many of the worst crimes are committed in the heat of the moment when the consequences aren’t thought through. And even in planned crimes where offenders may weigh up the risk of getting caught, how often do they seriously calculate the penal tariffs? Inevitably punishments such as prison reduce the opportunities to offend; but do they also have negative effects – such as 66
Nick Ross
I would rethink crime and punishment by divorcing the two concepts. Crime and punishment have surprisingly little in common and it is tragic that they are so commonly muddled up. Punishment is an idea based on people’s sense of fairness tinged with revenge. Crime is a function of people’s predisposition to offend and the temptations and opportunities in front of them.
introducing felons to other lawbreakers and so increasing their criminal opportunities? Perhaps – from a purely crime reduction perspective – some people should be locked up longer and others should be told to go home. I want to find out, and this is too important for us to go on relying on convention, gut feeling or political inclination. Meanwhile our focus on punishment distracts us from the thousands of more immediate and often cheaper steps we can take to redesign products, policies and services to make the prospect of detection more certain and, better still, to make crime less tempting and less easy to commit. Nick Ross Broadcaster
Peter Selby
I would rethink crime and punishment by concentrating far more resources on programmes of restoration. Faith communities have a profound understanding of forgiveness as a demanding, restoring process – far more demanding than locking people up and far more compensating of victims than constantly increasing sentences. Faith is about seeing big possibilities in small stories, and there are many of those. The good news is that most people who think about crime and punishment agree with the shift to restoration; the bad news is that it is politically hard to say. So I’d say the first requirement is courage. Peter Selby Bishop of Worcester and Bishop to HM Prisons
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It would provide an interesting dimension in how far race and diversity issues can truly be embedded (or mainstreamed) in organisations. Targets for the organisation would remain similar to the ones familiar to most of us in measuring performance such as staffing profile, proportion of black, minority and ethnic staff, ‘user’ confidence, community confidence and value for money etc. There are plenty of examples of the alternative option. Beverley Thompson Race and Equalities Advisor/Head of the Race and Equalities Action Group, Prison Service
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Beverley Thompson
I would rethink crime and punishment by tackling institutional racism and discrimination by putting in place a truly diverse management team with responsibility for the leadership and management for one of the criminal justice agencies.
Bruce Wall
I would rethink crime and punishment by developing incentives targeted at breaking the current alarming reoffending rates. Society must learn from its communal errors. We must engage, not simply punish. Prison numbers will only ever increase if societal responsibilities and mindsets don’t alter. We must help offenders and ex-offenders break the chains of institutionalisation we have enforced; the shackles of ‘infantilisation’ we have forged. We must promote confidence to break the addiction of dependence our systems create. If not, our communal charges will only ever increase in both human and fiscal terms. Dr Bruce Wall Executive Director, London Shakespeare Workout Prison Project
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At the moment we take people who are poorly educated and come from unstructured lifestyles, lock them up in idleness and then open up the prison gates expecting them to lead industrious, law-abiding lives. It is cloud cuckoo land. I would like to see a Government plan for introducing full working days into every prison by 2012 and before anyone protests about cost let me point out that there are such things as self-financing workshops and that investment in rehabilitation benefits us all. The Right Honourable Ann Widdecombe MP Member of Parliament for Maidstone and The Weald, former Prisons Minister
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Ann Widdecombe
I would rethink crime and punishment by ensuring that if prison is to work it must be purposeful and prisoners must spend their days in education and work. Offending behaviour courses must be properly linked with post-release supervision.
A different, and still simplistic, attitude is to give the impression that very few indeed need to be imprisoned in the first place. However, with a prison population now of over 75,000 it is time to seriously consider what can be done to find other ways of dealing with those who have engaged in criminality. I believe that with very few exceptions, it is generally agreed that the more serious offences should lead to imprisonment, and in some instances certainly to lengthy sentences.
David Winnick
I would rethink crime and punishment by first of all welcoming a public debate on prisons and the alternatives to custodial sentences; ‘lock them up and throw away the keys’ has always been, of course, the most simplistic reaction amongst some sections of the community towards offenders.
As for alternatives, the public need to feel reassured – which they don’t at the moment – that a non-custodial sentence isn’t just a bit of gardening, and if the offender doesn’t bother to turn up even for that, no-one cares one way or the other. The fact is that non-custodial sentences in some places are strictly carried out, and non-appearance means being brought back to court. The more efforts that are made along these lines, and at the same time to get the offender to face up to the harm they have been responsible for, the less need for vastly overcrowded prisons, the limited opportunities for rehabilitation and education, and first time offenders mixing constantly with hardened long-time criminals. Yes, society needs to be protected, but with 59 per cent of those discharged from prison re-offending again within two years, one must ask if we are going the right way about trying to do this. David Winnick MP Member of Parliament for Walsall North, Member of the Home Affairs Select Committee
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Thank you
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Tony Adams Victor Adebowale Jonathan Aitken Graham Allen Eric Allison Jeffrey Archer Vera Baird Paul Cavadino Christopher Compston Frances Crook James Gaddas Cheryl Gillan David Harker Roger Howard Douglas Hurd Stephen Irwin Erwin James Derek Lewis Ken Livingstone Charlotte Lucas Juliet Lyon Peter Martin Bill Midgley Cormac Murphy-O’Connor Theodore Mutale Jonathan Myerson Mark Oaten Charles Pollard Katherine Rake David Ramsbotham Mary Riddell Anita Roddick Nick Ross Peter Selby Beverley Thompson Bruce Wall Ann Widdecombe David Winnick 79
We’d like to thank everyone concerned for their contributions to this book. Reassuringly there is much in common between their thoughts, and the findings and recommendations from RCP’s substantial work, Rethinking Crime & Punishment: The Report. In particular, three messages stand out. Firstly, the need for a much greater emphasis on the prevention of crime. This involves both making it more difficult and less rewarding for people to offend and helping young people grow up with a strong sense of right and wrong. Secondly, when we do lock people up, that time should be used to equip them with the skills and knowledge they need to go straight. The barriers to finding a place to live and employment also need to be addressed. Finally, we need to develop community-based sentences in a way which ensures that prison is really used as a last resort. This involves tackling the severe educational, mental health and drug problems which lie behind so much crime and providing opportunities for offenders to pay back for the harm they have caused. It is easy to suggest that crime and anti-social behaviour is best dealt with by an uncompromising get-tough approach. But as the contributors to this book recognise, a complex set of social problems requires a more considered solution and investment in the kinds of measures which keep people out of trouble and assist those who do offend to lead a law abiding life in the future. Rob Allen Director, Rethinking Crime & Punishment
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RCP has funded projects including research studies, awareness and education campaigns, inquiries, events and community involvement exercises. RCP has also sponsored a major independent inquiry looking at alternatives to prison. Throughout, RCP has disseminated the emerging findings from its work with politicians, practitioners and through the media.
Design: www.red-stone.com Print: The Good News Press on Revive Uncoated Photography: David Harker by Citizens Advice Anita Roddick by Brian Moody
Rethinking Crime & Punishment (RCP) is a four-year £3 million initiative of Esmée Fairbairn Foundation about prison and other forms of punishment. It was set up in 2001 in response to widespread concern about the UK’s growing reliance on imprisonment. The specific aims of RCP have been to increase public knowledge about prison and alternatives, encourage public involvement in criminal justice and inject fresh thinking into the debate about crime.
Chairman: Baroness Linklater Project Director: Rob Allen Rethinking Crime & Punishment is a strategic initiative of Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, charity number 200051.
Rethinking Crime & Punishment Esmée Fairbairn Foundation 11 Park Place, London SW1A 1LP Telephone: 020 7297 4700 Email: info@rethinking.org.uk www.rethinking.org.uk www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk December 2004