A Fetid Legacy From The Tories.

[sandyRoe]

The Tories clearly neglected their duty to the prison service while they were in office.

Prisons are bursting at the seams and there's talk of early releases of some inmates so that others can be accommodated.

A departing Labour Cabinet Minister once left a note for his successor saying: There's no money left.

That wasn't much compared to the prison mess the new government faces.  

What's to be done?

[sandyRoe]

The Tories had been in office for 14 years, that's longer than some killers serve for murder,  and yet in that long time things seem to have got worse.

[jourdain2]

Yes, but, horribly, I can't see things getting any better.  The whole of society has changed sinceI was young and the No. of criminals has increased disproportionately.

What's to be done?  Sounds awful, but use some of the air-force bases they have closed/are closing into prison camps. Building new prisons takes time - they were building a new, huge, one not far from us in La Vienne.  Massive earthworks to keep it out of view and make it hard to escape from.  Our country has been stupidly slow to identify the increase in criminality (they didn't assume that a certain percentage of all those immigrants )would be criminals.  Now it will be desperate measures for a few years - so camps it is. 

[Deskdiary]

You haven't explained, because you can't, why this is "A fetid legacy from the Tories" when the same problem existed during the last Labour Government. 
 

Beside from the fact we're all going to be poorer in 5 years time, I am going to enjoy the left on AB tieing themselves in knots. It's already happening. 

[Old_Geezer]

You're almost out of the EU so that's immensely better to start with. Apart from that, some seem to be missing the global problems of late, or think they can pin it on the government at the time.

[Gromit]

Labour are NOT going to announce a new prisons building target today.   
The Tories have doubled the prison population )without doubling capacity) and it clearly doesn't work.  
I think MR Timpson has some radical ideas - which you probably won't like 😀

[10ClarionSt]

I'm no expert but I sometimes think that there are other options. A few years ago there was a case of a man convicted of sexually abusing his children but didn't receive a custodial sentence. Instead there were various restrictions and orders that he had to comply with. His ex-wife agreed with this saying that he would find his life more difficult with the sentence, rather than just languishing in prison. She thought it was a more suitable sentence. Perhaps this is the route that the govt is thinking of. 

[sandyRoe]

It was Teresa May who was in the Home Office 14 years ago.  Civil Servants would have told her the state the prison service was in.

From then to now they allowed the problem to fester.  If that's not a fetid legacy, I don't know what is.

[Deskdiary]

^^^as I say, the left will be tying themselves in knots for the next five years.

[Old_Geezer]

There are too many offenders, so some idiots in government claim letting those, who were given the appropriate sentence at the time, out on the streets is going to reduce the chance of criminal chaos, when any normal person knows it risks increasing criminal activity, since we know many reoffend, and the sending out of a message that consequences are reduced for you because society has no provision is simply an encouragement to resume your antisocial lifestyle.

 

What bunch voted this lot in ?

Just export our excess criminals untl we have the resources to deal with them ourselves.

[gulliver1]

17.49 Deskdiary "So what are Labour Going to do? Build more Prisons?" If you have to wait as long as you have for the 80 new hospitals that Bonkers Boris Promised it ain't never gonna happen.😎

[nicebloke1]

Well theres plenty of board and lodings pre- paid for in Rwanda.🤣🤣

[New Judge]

“The Tories have doubled the prison population…”

Have they?

There are currently around 86,000 people in UK prisons. The last time there were only 43,000 was around 1982. Between then (when there was a Tory government) and when Labour came to power in 1997 the prison population increased to around 61,000. In the “New Labour” years from then to 2010 that figure increased to around 85,000. It has remained there or thereabouts ever since apart from a blip in 2020-21, when it went down to 78,000 (obviously as a result of the pandemic).

So in summary, the prison population increased from 43k to 61k under Tory governments and from 61k to 86k under Labour governments. Of the 100% increase between 1982 and 2010, 42% occurred under a Tory government and the remaining 58% under the “New” Labour government.

Personally I don’t think any government bears responsibility for these increases. There were no changes to legislation which would see a significant number of additional criminals sentenced to prison. The sentencing guidelines (which are allegedly prepared by a body independent of government interference anyway) have, if anything kept more people out of prison, especially those who might be sentenced to short terms of custody. The reason there are more people in prison is because more people are committing more crimes which are serious enough to attract custodial sentences. But if you are going to lay the blame for the increase with any particular government it might be prudent if you studied the facts first.

[Togo]

9,000 foreign nationals, around 11%, make up the numbers of prisoners in UK prisons. 9,000! Why are they still here? 

[jourdain2]

A very good question, Togo.  Why haven't they been sent to their own countries for detention?