Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke suggests reducing the number of people in jail. He released his green paper, Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders, to howls of indignation from the right. Clarke has suggested some radical changes to the criminal justice system. Prison should be reserved for the most serious offenders. Drug addiction, mental health problems and social and economic deprivation are major factors in criminality. By focusing on these and diverting people from the penal system into treatment, we can liberate offenders from the inexorable cycle of criminal behaviour.
While Clarke’s instincts may be enlightened, swingeing cuts threaten to undermine his reforms. The Justice Secretary recognises that short-term periods of confinement accomplish little by themelves. They are only effective if combined with intensive
multi-agency intervention to help prisoners understand the impact of their crimes and return to society as constructive members of it.
That means help with resettlement (a third of offenders are homeless when they commit their crimes), finding employment and with any substance abuse problems. We can allow people at huge fracture points in their lives to remain locked in a cycle of deprivation, crime and punishment. Or we can intervene with the aim of making a positive difference.
The previous Labour Government created dozens of schemes exploring early diversion from the criminal justice system, recognising that some criminality is the consequences of social and health problems. It introduced restorative justice pilots around the country. Clarke wants to build on these initiatives. However, the most reactionary government since Margaret Thatcher’s heyday, in which is he is a senior minister, is likely to thwart his good intentions.
Clarke says will he divert offenders to the Department of Health and expand the treatment of drug and mental health problems. Where is the money going to come from? The health service budget is already stretched and the Government is only increasing it by 0.5 per cent in each of the next five years, which represents a decline in real terms. How is it possible to fund treatment for the tens of thousands of addicted prisoners? Clarke aims to expand pay-for-results diversified offending programmes. He points to Peterborough, where a Labour pilot was funded by a scheme called Social Finance. Since there is a financial crisis, where is he going to find sufficient philanthropists to fund schemes for the whole country?
He says he wants to expand restorative justice. But restorative justice is at an early stage. Its proponents say it can be very effective. Opponents say their experience of restorative justice is rather different. Without the Youth Justice Board – scrapped in the “bonfire of the quangos” – to identify, measure and disseminate best practice, how can Clarke’s plan become a reality? Further, the huge cuts to local authority budgets mean hundreds of youth and social workers and other key professionals are going to lose their jobs.
Labour should give cautious support to Clarke’s ideas, track their implementation and protest every time a sensible programme is shut down because of a lack of money. If Clarke’s plans fail because of a lack of funding, and crime and reoffending rise drastically as a result, it will set back the progressive case in criminal justice by decades.
Imran Ahmed is a Labour Party activist in Hammersmith
