A rehabilitation revolution

Further to our earlier report on the new Tory prisons policy and its emphasis on providing more prison places a much bigger theme of prisoner rehabilitation emerged from today's launch conference with David Cameron and Nick Herbert:

The most tabloid-friendly announcement from this morning's policy paper - Prisons With A Purpose - was the proposal that those offenders on community service should wear "high visibility overalls" when cleaning up graffiti or undertaking other work in public view.  Mr Cameron said that this would reassure the public that community sentences were real.  ITV's Libby Wiener wondered if the prisoners would look like Guantanamo inmates.  Mr Cameron said that they would not but that there was nothing wrong with offenders being marked out.

Less newsworthy but more important is a Tory commitment to double expenditure on rehabilitation to £259m or £2,500 for every discharged prisoner with the aim of reducing reoffending by 20%.   The reduction in reoffending, Mr Herbert hoped, would pay for the extra rebab.  Key to making the rehabilitation work will be a revolution in incentives.  Prison governors will be paid - not just for 'warehousing' prisoners but will be paid a premium if released prisoners haven't reoffended two years later.  The Tory Justice team hope that this will encourage the prison authorities to invest seriously in rehab and invite the best voluntary providers into their institutions.

The deportation of foreign prisoners coupled with the provision of extra prison places - to combat overcrowding - would provide the prison service with the extra room that it needs for proper rehabilitation.

Two new terms are set to join the political lexicon.  Judges will have to issue MinMax sentences - specifying the minimum period an offender must stay in prison and a maximum sentence.  The better behaved an offender the shorter the sentence but it will never be less than the minimum.  If the prisoner works hard and undertakes rehab they will be entitled to Earned Release.

Tories dispute that the wrong people are in prison but are persuaded by many of the recommendations of the Corston Report on women prisoners and the ongoing Bradley Review for those with mental health problems and that these categories of prisoners may need more specialist attention.

At least 60% of the earnings made by prisoners will go to a new Victims' Fund.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: The Prisons With A Purpose document is a huge encouragement to all of us who hope for a thoughtful and radical Conservative government.  The paper offers a comprehensive approach to reducing the huge problem of reoffending by revolutionising the incentive structures facing prisoners and the prison authorities.  Half of all crime is currently committed by previous offenders.  This paper is a serious attempt to increase public safety by both ending Labour's early releases and increasing rehabilitation.  As previously noted, Nick Herbert and Michael Gove are star performers in the shadow cabinet team.  David Cameron was astute to promote them both so quickly.

Comments

[True Blue]

I can't believe it! The front bench have actually adopted the policy suggestion or financial incentives for prisoners not reoffending. Brilliant. I hope this it wasn't just coincidence that I suggested it back in 2006.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2006/04/_the_last_few_d.html

[Andrew Woodman]

Good policy. How long before Labour nick it?

[Andrew Bridgen]

Labour will nick the policy in about five days time judging by their recent averages.

[Richard Weatherill]

These proposals are a breath of fresh air and a good example of the 'and theory' in action. The idea of a Victims' Fund financed from prisoners' earnings is much better than the £15 Victims' Surcharge which the courts are now forced to impose whenever they fine anyone.

[Patsy Sergeant]

Yes, the two Andrew's, but Labour would be incapable of implementing it in the same way as Mr. Cameron is proposing, you forget their priority is ALWAYS political i.e. VOTES, THEY would be more likely to say to a prisoner that they would get the prisoner signed up to a course (run by an agency!), provided the prisoner signed an undertaking to vote labour (if they have a vote of course)!

[Editor]

Yes, Andrew and Andrew: David Cameron joked at the conference that he expected Labour to nick these ideas. If they do and implement them properly (a very big if) the country at least benefits and the media see the Tories setting the agenda (again).

[bexie]

I like the idea of the little scumbags wearing orange overalls stating the crime they committed, scrubbing grafitti off subways or cleaning up gum from pavements. Excellent

{rubs hands in glee}

[CCHQ Spy]

I agree with ConHome on this. Herbert and Gove are outstanding but shouldn't Oliver Letwin get some credit for this too?

[Northernhousewife]

The simplest ideas are often the best!
These were very poorly reported on Radio 4's Today.
Yes and if they nick them, we will make it clear in blogland that everyone knows they did and we will hold them to account for their [likely] poor implimentation.
Brown is more of an empty vessel by the day and any serious journalist can see that.
The recent sanctioned attacks on Boris, trailed heavily in the media by Harman[the privately educated neice of a peer whose Early Day motion congratulates Castro] and Blears [oh I can't even be bothered, we all know what she isn't, ie a credable minister....] are clear signs that Gordon's moral compass is there alright, its just pointing in the wrong direction.

[Votedave]

Excellent policy plans here.

[Afleitch]

'Tories to pay offenders' screamed the BBC at 6 today. It was both woeful reporting and misleading

[Richard North]

Contrary to popular opinion, there is no shortage of prison space. Up to 50 percent of inmates have recognisable mental health illness so the shortage lies is in adequate (secure) psychiatric hospitals, as a result of which prisons are having to take the load.

Build more hospitals and put some of the prisons budget into mental health and the overcrowding problems would be well towards a solution without a single new prison being built.

Secondly, we have one of the highest re-offending rates in the developed world. Look to Japan - which has one of the lowest - and you will see a system of volunteer probation officers, which allows releasees to have one-to-one supervision by "real world" probation officers.

These are the directions to look.

[Zen]

"I like the idea of the little scumbags wearing orange overalls". Gitmo fascism strikes again.

[Dave J]

Zen, how is putting prisoners to work in overalls and/or on chain gangs "fascism"? Should they just be allowed to lay about watching TV and enjoying their three hots and a cot without doing anything to pay back the taxpayers who are feeding and housing them?

[bexie]

Actually Zen, Facism is about punishing small businesses and the individual for expressing freedom. punishing people for breaking the law is not.

Not punishing people for law breaking is however part of the Marxist/leninist agenda for destroying society so that it can then be remade with ever more oppressive laws on the already law abiding.

[Yet Another Anon]

Up to 50 percent of inmates have recognisable mental health illness so the shortage lies is in adequate (secure) psychiatric hospitals, as a result of which prisons are having to take the load.
The types of mental illness among the prison population will vary, as it does among the general population, and so will the degree of impairment.

I am suspicious as well about moving people out of punishment on grounds of psychiatric illness, these days it is coming to the point where criminality itself is almost being defined by many psychiatrists and social scientists as being a form of mental illness, a sharp crook can fake mental illness - I don't want to see the chance of anybody escaping punishment simply because they have a knowledge of symptoms of many illnesses and are able to fool a psychiatrist and a court with an act.

If someone has a broken leg or cancer then it's a much more straightforward thing to decide on than schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

[jailhouselawyer]

When those MPs who have had their grubby little snouts in the trough have experienced some imprisonment they might have something constructive to offer to the debate. Until then, perhaps they will desist from chopping down trees just to produce waste paper?