The new chief of the prison governors’ union has questioned whether politicians have the “courage” to free prisoners still trapped behind bars on abolished indefinite sentences – as he warned of the need for a fundamental rethink of how Britain punishes criminals.
In his first newspaper interview in the role, Tom Wheatley told The Independent that many cash-strapped governors face an “impossible” task of keeping crumbling, overcrowded and increasingly violent prisons running in a way that keeps the public safe.
Arguing that ever-longer sentences will keep placing an unsustainable strain on the prison system unless it is properly funded, making it harder to rehabilitate dangerous offenders, Mr Wheatley warned that politicians must be brave enough to consider making “fundamental changes to the way we use prisons”.
With the size of Britain’s growing inmate population “moving more towards the US” than comparable European nations, he said the UK must decide whether it wants either to properly invest in jails – or else to send fewer people to prison, and spend that money on schools, hospitals and social care instead.
Likening the current situation to using surgery as “the first response” for any patient who visits a GP, Mr Wheatley said: “There are a lot of things we could do before we get to the stage where we’re going to take the most expensive and highest-risk option. We could take a different view on how we use punishment, and what things prison is suitable for.”
Giving one such example, he pointed to “the blot on our legal system” of “imprisonment for public protection” (IPP) sentences, which saw people handed minimum jail terms but no maximum.
This story is from the April 28, 2024 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the April 28, 2024 edition of The Independent.
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