PRISON DOESN'T WORK

Here’s an interesting phenomenon: finding oneself agreeing with Mark Oaten! In an interview to be broadcast on Radio 4 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6935370.stm) he has made the case for prisons to be abolished, to be replaced by secure ‘rehabilitation centres’ to deal with the root causes of offending, which he suggests include mental health problems and drug addiction. This is a very strong case and one which the usual arguments of the right wingers can’t really challenge.

To ape Michael Howard, let’s make one thing clear: prison doesn’t work. Locking people away for hours every day with a few hundred other bored and potentially aggressive individuals and expecting them to achieve a Damascene conversion to the path of honesty while twiddling their thumbs in a tiny room without even a toilet is, quite frankly, ludicrous. Sure, they are hidden away from right thinking Daily Mail readers – but not forever, since that would be utterly illiberal and very expensive. Those individuals will eventually be released and no doubt many will harbour a large dose of resentment at their wasted time in prison.

I would not agree with Mark Oaten’s proposed alternative to prison completely but I applaud his raising of the subject. I would suggest that, instead of rehabilitation centres, what is needed is far simpler: if prisoners were given the chance to work, to learn a skill and to earn money, that would be a far greater incentive for them to change their behaviour than would any number of courses.

Such courses are of course instigated with the best of intentions, which will no doubt benefit many of the individuals involved. However, what 99.9% of the world’s population wants is security, which means a decent income to provide for all one’s basic needs – and a little more on top for enjoyment of life. Giving prisoners the means to look after themselves legitimately seems a far more preferable option than simply forgetting about them until some of them add to future crime statistics.

Stretching the argument to its logical extreme, it might even be possible to recoup some of the cost of prison from former prisoners through their future earnings – subject to their achieving a certain level of income, rather like the student loans system.

That would provide an incentive for the prisons service to offer high quality training and work to prisoners, since it would maximise income for the service. It would also demonstrate to those desperate for as much ‘punishment’ as possible that prison would indeed be working – delivering an economic benefit to society and a social benefit to the prisoners who would formerly have simply been ejected at the end of their sentence, possibly to return to criminal activity.

I can only hope that Mr Oaten’s comments cause a sufficient stir to cause this subject to be discussed more widely.