Can the Ministry of Justice carry on without our failing prison system seizing up altogether? Today we learned that Magistrates are being urged by the Chief Judge not to send convicted offenders to prison until room can be made for them in prison cells.
After the riots last month, there are only a few hundred jail cells left for male adults nationally. Police custody cells that housed hundreds of arrested rioters are being used by ‘Operation Safeguard’ to deal with prison overspill. Under Operation ‘Early Dawn’, court hearings are being delayed until jail space becomes available.
Bail conditions could be more draconian than being locked up in a prison where it’s easier to get Ketamine than a working kettle
Even so, these desperate measures are obviously not enough. We are still weeks away from September 10th – when the government has pledged to release thousands of prisoners early to ease prison overcrowding.
Some of us can still remember the main purposes of prison – retribution, public protection and rehabilitation. Justice via logistics management did not use to come into it.
Yet here we are – and we can hardly blame the new government which has been left with an abundance of prisoners, and no prisons to fit them in.
In his ‘listing direction’ imploring Magistrates to avoid sending convicts to prison, Senior Judge Lord Justice Green writes that it is ‘appropriate that the judiciary have regard to the wider functioning of the criminal justice system’ in their sentencing. In other words, until there’s room in our prisoners, criminals will have to walk free.
It remains to be seen whether this leniency will be extended to the rioters who have pleaded guilty. The prime minister promised harsh consequences for those involved in the civil disorder in July and August, from Plymouth to Hartlepool via Belfast. It may be though that is impossible, thanks to the mess he has been left by the Conservatives.
Does it actually matter if those convicted in the Magistrates’ courts for offences that merit jail time are let out on bail because of the lack of cells? It will make a difference – but probably less than doom mongers think. Many other countries have systems where jail time is delayed or even staggered – to allow people to maintain their work commitments – without discernible harm. Magistrates courts only deal with relatively minor offences and my guess is that extensive bail conditions will be imposed on those who would normally be sent straight to prison. Ironically for risky offenders, bail conditions could be more draconian than being locked up in a prison where it’s easier to get Ketamine than a working kettle. But we are still left with a particular and a general dispiriting reality. All the evidence shows that it’s the certainty of being punished that stops criminality more than the severity of the sentence.
This intervention shows that the criminal justice system has been allowed to fall into outrageous decrepitude. This, not justice, is currently dictating how offenders are dealt with. Victims don’t have a look in.
It hardly makes a difference that our jails are now overwhelmed with scandal and crisis. The principle of just deserts has been wrecked by the failures of the last Conservative government. Only 6,000 of the 20,000 prison spaces promised by the Tories were delivered before their eviction. And the prisons we have are stuffed with crime, violence, drugs, mental distress and indolence. I suspect we shall limp over the line – just – without a major prison disturbance.
In May, the National Police Chiefs Council advised Chief Constables to pause routine arrests to help out prisons. This prompted a stinging reaction from many, including the then Shadow Justice Secretary, Shabanna Mahmood, who said, ‘It beggars belief that police are being told to sit on their hands and ignore crime because the Conservatives have mismanaged the criminal justice system so badly.’ She is now in charge of a system where Magistrates are being advised to sit on their gavels for exactly the same reason. There will be little mileage left in ‘but the Tories’ when, not if, offenders on bail or released early commit a further serious offence.
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