Prevention is Better than the Cure: why any programme of prison reform should start with yo

This week, Justice Minister Liz Truss made a speech about the state of the
British prison system, condemning supposed ‘quick fix’ solutions to
overcrowding and poor sentencing. This speech was made in response to
BBC footage from earlier this week, which showed the chaotic state of the
British prison system, with an undercover officer at HMP Northumberland
secretly filming his discoveries. Whilst undercover, the BBC’s reporter
discovered cases of widespread drug use, door alarms that didn’t work, holes
in security fences and an evident lack of control on the part of the prison
officers. It is clear that the poorly constructed building blocks of our prison
system are crumbling, and that we are ultimately failing to successfully
rehabilitate our criminals.
One of the main purposes of the prison system is rehabilitation, with an
intention that criminals who enter into the criminal justice system are
eventually released and never reoffend. However, as Ms Truss reminded us
yesterday, reoffending rates have soared in recent years and prisons
themselves have become remarkably more violent. Though we may assume
criminals to be the most violent members of society, that prisons – the very
institution meant to house their rehabilitation – are violent themselves seems
to go against all logic. For a criminal, prison doesn’t seem like such a bad
place to be right now.
It is in light of these problems that Truss has presented us with her thoughts
on the matter. The main points of her speech focussed on incorporating a
more severe prison inspectorate, improving rehabilitation programmes,
offering more help to drug offenders and maintaining the rules around
indeterminate sentences. However, the point made by Truss that I found most
interesting was her comment that "too often people end up in prison
because our interventions to tackle problems like drug addiction or mental health issues don't work as well as they should.” Here, I think Truss taps in to a very important, and often neglected, notion: that prevention is easier (and better) than the cure.
Clearly, the British prison system is in disarray, at which point we should not
hesitate to turn our attention to preventative measures, so as to ensure that
fewer people commit the crimes that mean they end up in prison in the first
place. At BIGKID Foundation, prevention is our focus in our work with young people in Lambeth. We understand that once a young person is in a gang, it is much harder to get them out of it than it would have been to deter them from joining. Helping a child to take the positive steps required to stay in school is easier than helping them to find a new school once they have
already been excluded. As we are currently failing to rehabilitate prisoners, it
may be more effective to take steps to prevent them becoming prisoners in
the first place.
Certainly, all criminality has a root cause that, in turn, has its own solution. It is
up to us as a charity – and as part of the wider population - to determine what
these causes might be, and where intervention is necessary. At BIGKID, we
believe intervention to be key for those children at risk of expulsion from
school. Once a young person has become NEET (Not in Education,
Employment or Training) they tend to become excluded from society, and,
consequently, over-represented in criminal statistics. Therefore, by
intervening to prevent them becoming NEET we are able to take steps to
reduce the likelihood of them engaging in criminal activity. Consequently, it
appears to me that any programme of prison reform should start with a focus
on youth work, and the preventative measures that need to be taken to
ensure that they are not stuck on a path headed for prison.
This principle can be easily explained in economic terms, proving that not only is prevention easier and better than finding a cure, but it is also cheaper. According to a 2007 report by New Philanthropy Capital “Misspent Youth: The costs of truancy and exclusion, a guide for donors and funders,” the average excluded child costs £63,851 to society – infinitely more than they do when in education. Moreover, the cost needed by organisations such as BIGKID to re-integrate a young person into the school community is miniscule in comparison to their cost to society if permanently excluded. When a person enters into the criminal justice their cost to society grows exponentially - each new prison place costs £119,000, while the annual average cost for each prisoner exceeds £40,000.
Of course, attention must be paid to the British prison system to ensure that it
is just, humane and effective at rehabilitating criminals. To have prisoners
engaging in criminal activity similar to what they were imprisoned for appears
to defy logic. Thankfully, charities such as the Prison Reform Trust and the Howard League are working in line with the government to ensure wider
reform of the system. While the British prison system must be reformed to
become a more effective cure for criminal behaviour, we must not fail to
prevent the issues, circumstances and events that require a cure in the first
place.
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