MPs warn of bulging British jails
The government must “think long and hard” about alternatives to prison for some offenders if Britain’s bulging jail population is to be managed, MPs have warned.
The prison population currently stands at more than 77,000, a situation which campaigners argue is damaging attempts to rehabilitate offenders, is causing unrest and may in some cases lead to higher suicide rates.
Today the public accounts committee praises the prison service for dealing with a 70 per cent increase in the prison population between 2002 and 2004, but warns that it must be better prepared for a similar increase in the future.
It notes that almost 4,000 people a year are held in jail on remand but then never actually receive a prison sentence, and says they could be monitored more effectively in the community through the use of electronic tagging.
Children and people with mental health problems are another group who could be taken out of the mainstream prison population to be dealt with elsewhere, the MPs say.
In addition, they warn that the Home Office must press ahead with its promise to deport more foreign prisoners – there are currently more than 10,000 such foreign nationals in British jails, but many should be eligible for deportation.
Charles Clarke was sacked as home secretary last month after he admitted more than 1,000 foreign prisoners had been released from jail without being assessed for deportation.
Before he left, he promised a radical overhaul of the system to ensure that every foreign prisoner convicted of a serious offence would automatically be eligible for deportation, and his successor, John Reid, has promised to see this through.
“Around 13 per cent of all prisoners are foreign nationals. It was an astonishing error by Home Office officials that 1,019 were released without any thought being given to whether they should be deported from the UK,” said committee chairman Edward Leigh.
“It is now of the highest importance that the Home Office knows exactly what foreign criminals it has under lock and key and what scope there is for deporting them – either during or at the end of their sentences.”
The committee also looks at the other solution to prison overcrowding – building more jails – and warns that although temporary units have been built, the failure to properly test them led to delays, disruption and avoidable problems.
Mr Leigh said: “The prison service cannot be blamed for not being able to predict future prisoner numbers accurately. But it must not be caught flat-footed, as it was in 2002, when there was a sudden surge in demand for prison places.”
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