Uncommon sense…

Most people in Salisbury think that when it comes to prison sentences, time should mean time. That was the clear message of a Market Place straw poll on a Saturday morning. It certainly confirms my own perception of public opinion.

But who decides what ‘time’ means? Elected politicians (Commons Ministers) issue sentencing guidelines – and these have always been controversial. Recently the Secretary of State for Justice (aka The Lord Chancellor) urged magistrates to send fewer people to prison. Not because crime has changed – nor public reaction to it – but because he has run out of prison places. Most people would think this a cock-eyed way to run a country’s justice system – and they’d be right.

Double trouble
When you first elected me to Parliament in 1983, there were 42,462 people in prison, on remand, or in youth custody and detention centres. In February 2008 there are over 82,000 – that’s twice the population of Salisbury city. The prison population has doubled. Has crime halved? Is prison a deterrent? Why do we have more people banged up than any other country in Europe? Is the purpose of prison to punish, to reform, or both?

A good measure of the civilisation of a country is how it treats its prisoners. Last month I met the Governor of Belmarsh Prison – our most secure facility for terrorists and murderers. Previously Governor of our most notorious Victorian prison on Dartmoor, she knew a thing or two about prison life. Interestingly, we met in Parliament’s Parish Church and then over breakfast with a cross-Party group of friends. Not surprisingly, she has a very strong sense of right and wrong, and a highly professional, experienced, handle on her job. She also has a more comprehensive understanding of the consequences of ‘justice’ than most of us. A day in the life of a prison governor is a lot more difficult than locking villains up and throwing away the key.

I met her on the eve of the conviction of the Ipswich serial murderer and the Surrey necrophiliac killer. The Governor talked about the professionalism of the Prison Warders who are responsible not only for the deep security of the prisoners before and after conviction, but who also have to make a judgment about the likelihood of self-harm of such prisoners, their safety if kept in company with other prisoners – and the safety of the other prisoners themselves. She described the process of preparing a young man for the possibility and then the certainty that he will spend the rest of his natural life behind bars, or at best emerge old and alone.

Does this go some way to explain the apparent tolerance of a pervasive drug culture in our prisons? Possibly – but no-one should delude themselves that prison life is in any way attractive, soft or comfortable.

How tough on crime?
So, is there an answer – or do we just muddle on, building more and more prisons? We tried a prison ship moored in Portland Harbour until quite recently – and that is still a solution favoured by some. Yet it brings back memories of Victorian prison hulks and Charles Dickens.

What about the death penalty? I used to think that was the answer and I always voted in favour of a return when given the opportunity. But we have moved on – this country will not go there again and we must recognise that. How about an Alcatraz, Robin Island or Devil’s Island? We have plenty of candidate islands after all. But these ‘solutions’ only scratch the surface of the numbers problem at one extreme end. If we really want to reduce the prison population it is not about telling judges how to do their job – it is about preventing young men (who make up the bulk of our prison population) from getting into trouble in the first place.

Who’s to blame?
We know what that means. But it a huge challenge for all of us – and it seems that so far we are not willing to tackle it head on. Over half of imprisonable offences are drug and alcohol induced (and most of the anti-social behaviour which plagues us even in Salisbury and our villages). Much of the rest is caused by a growing culture of violence and its glorification for which TV, films and the exploding world of multimedia broadcasting is responsible. No ifs and buts. I first made a speech in the Commons saying that in about 1988 when media growth was in its infancy! But I argued then and I argue now that the answer is not censorship and regulation. The answer is to switch it off – or not switch it on in the first place.

Tough answers
And that depends on giving our children the tool-kit of life-skills that starts with teaching them the difference between right and wrong – not just to the age of five when parents can shuffle off responsibility on to teachers, but right through adolescence and early adulthood. Where are the parents of the teenage tearaways drunk on our streets at weekends? Why don’t they care? And why have we failed to teach those young people self-respect and self-discipline?

Our troops in Afghanistan are the best current defence we now have against rotting the lives of our next generation on imported drugs. But the national love-affair with alcohol and hooliganism stares us in the face every day. It is beyond Party politics. Is it beyond the wit of man to fix it?

Robert Key MP
25th February 2008