Unholy Alliances, but hey, whatever works.

Nick Clegg gets behind the Justice Secretary's working prisons proposals.
Unleashed from behind the Times paywall. Spelling mistakes theirs, not ours.

 

The bosses of Britain’s top companies are to be drafted in by Kenneth Clarke in an effort to get prisoners working in jail.

The Justice Secretary believes that inmates should be offered hard work to relieve the “stupefying boredom” in prisons throughout England and Wales.

The Confederation of British Industry and large UK firms are to join an advisory group to help develop constructive work opportunities for prisoners, giving offenders skills they can use when they are released.

A report by a leading think-tank published today provides support for Mr Clarke’s ambition but adds that the creation of a proper working week for prisoners should develop slowly if it is to be a success. The Policy Exchange recommends that thousands of inmates should be paid a new prison minimum wage of £3.10 an hour for an eight-hour day. Deductions would be made to a victims fund and towards helping released inmates resettle.

Almost three quarters of the public support expanding work opportunities using outside employers in jails, according to a YouGov poll conducted for the report.

But those questioned were more evenly divided on the issue of paying prisoners for their work. Just over half believed that they should be paid, but 41 per cent said that inmates should get nothing for prison employement.

Blair Gibbs, head of the crime and justice unit at Policy Exchange, said: “People expect prisoners to work in jail but under the current system no inmate is compelled to work and most do not choose to, meaning that they leave prison totally unprepared for working life.

“Creating a market for real work in prison where inmates are encouraged to replicate a full working week should reduce employment rates on release and cut reoffending rates. Real prison work is a long overdue justice reform that the public support.”

The report is published as Mr Clarke revises plans for sentence discounts of up to fifty per cent for early guilty pleas. He is expected to publish his revised overhaul of sentencing within the next ten days.

Mr Clarke said: “This survey shows overwhelming public support for our plans to expand real work in prisons. We will shortly announce the establishment of an advisory group, to include major UK firms and the CBI, to help encourage the growth of hard, constructive work in jail, in a way that does not disadvantage the law-abiding workforce.”

Part of Mr Clarke’s proposals include a drive to bring more outside firms into jails to provide skills and jobs to prisoners which will improve their chances of getting work on release.

In April Mr Clarke told The Times that he wanted more companies involved in providing employment opportunities in jails. He said they should have the opportunity to train and recruit among prisoners whose lives could be turned around so they could lead an honest life on being released.

Some firms are already providing employment in jails but Mr Clarke said they were reluctant to advertise their involvement because “newspapers write them up as ‘employing jail birds’”.

Among companies working in jails are Travis Perkins in Stocken prison, where inmates repair plant tool hire equipment, and ASD Lighting in Gartree jail, where inmates assemble components. Many other small firms have contracts with prisons but most of the work is general packing and assembly, recycling, textile finishing and laundry work.

The report said that only low-risk prisoners with at least two years of their sentence should initially be involved in real work employment. They should be tested to ensure they are free of drugs and have a reading age of 11 or above.

On this basis the report estimates that between 2,600 and 7,300 of the 60,000 sentenced adult male population would be ready and available for work.

The report suggests that some manufacturing or industrial work outsourced abroad could be carried out in prison.

Prisoners would make contributions to victims and their own future resettlement on release from their weekly wage. Take-home pay would be about £25 a week.

A quarter of the wage would go towards resettlement and their would also be deductions for tax and national insurance.

Another day another shortsighted politician whoring for votes

Douglas Carswell MP for the leafy suburb of Clacton criticizes the report by the highly respected Women's Justice Taskforce into the Sentencing Commission's Review. The report was welcomed by the normally conservative Magistrate's Association,  who said

"The Magistrates’ Association endorses the proposals in the final report of the Women’s Justice Taskforce. Magistrates applaud the work done by women’s centres and, where they are available and suitable, welcome alternatives to custody for vulnerable defendants or those who are sole carers for dependants, especially children. We note with approval the recommendation of increased provision of bail accommodation which would give viable alternatives in more instances to remands in custody."   

Their deputy chairman Malcolm Richardson stated

“We completely agree that provision is needed beyond the current centres, and would suggest as a matter of urgency that such provision is made available throughout the country to remove the unfairness of the full range of sentencing options being available in only some cases - effectively resulting in postcode sentencing”.

The report, which clearly Mr Carswell has not read, doesn't call on a blanket ban on custodial sentences for all women, but when politicians pander to the extremities of misogyny and retribution in a cheap attempt to garner votes from the hang'em, flog 'em, eat 'em for breakfast Daily Fail reading public, perhaps someone might take this young fresh-blooded bull by the horns and lock  him up for a couple of quiet, Twitter-less nights, in the recesses of HMP Wormwood Scrubs. He criticizes the Prison Reform Trust, perhaps the most respected charity in the field of criminal justice with cross-party support, for being a bunch of left wing loonies and *ironically* suggests we leave sentencing in their hands. Rather them than a right-wing-nut with no idea of what the public wants.*  Then tell us about how easy prison is. This from the man who makes no mystery of his contempt for the judiciary who are struggling to find alternatives for prison, because however you look at it, it is expensive and it doesn't work at over £56 000 a pop a year, that'll buy you a lot of camouflage, Dougie Ducks.
 

So out of touch with what people want,  but then doesn't really matter does it? It's the exclusive politics of the political elite, not as elected representatives of your constituency

*An  ICM poll, commissioned by SmartJustice, revealed that most people support alternatives to prison for non-violent offenders. 86% of 1,000 people polled were in favour of local centres for women where they could break addictions, receive mental health treatment, gain skills and get out of debt.

Men getting all bendy.

 
This is a guest post by  James Fox, the founder of Prison Yoga.

There are currently 7.3 million Americans under correctional supervision in the criminal justice system, 2.25 million warehoused in U.S. prisons. Prisons are located away from where the rest of us live, usually not where we can see them. Yes, out of sight, out of mind. We’re out of touch with the fact that huge numbers of us are behind bars. Usually it’s just families who care…and the remote locations of most prisons make it harder on families to reunite.
 
The U.S. criminal justice system is fundamentally about punishment. It’s retributive justice. Do the crime, do the time. Prisoners aren’t made to come face to face with their crimes, to take responsibility for damage they’ve done to their victims or themselves. On average it costs $29,000 a year to imprison an adult, $45,000 in New York, more in California. Yet prisoners are released with little rehabilitative improvement, social or life skills. It’s no wonder 67% of them re-offend in California (60% US average). We have to ask ourselves, after release, what kind of person do we want coming back into our communities? At the grocery store. In a restaurant. At the park?

We believe in restorative justice. Prison Yoga Project provides a cost-effective method of improving prisoner health and behavior. We believe in addressing the damage done and providing tools for self rehabilitation. We’ve helped hundreds of prisoners by instilling self-control and fostering accountability. While they’re ‘doing the time,’ we focus on violence prevention, impulse control, mood disorders, depression, despair, addiction and PTSD. Prisons are dumping grounds for people afflicted with trauma and addictions.
The need for yoga and mindfulness training in prisons is critical. There is an ever-growing and unmet demand for programs and the teachers who run them. These volunteers need special training to effectively deal with at-risk populations. And there are so many prisons we haven’t yet reached. At San Quentin alone there are waiting lists to enter the current program. As you can see from the prisoners’ own letters, one of the most important things this program does is to put free books into their hands. This takes money. And this says nothing about the need for office and other support and supplies. The list is long.

Thanks for believing, as we do, in the healing power of yoga and the worthiness of all human beings to receive this healing. We appreciate your support. If you need further information or wish to arrange a program in your community, please contact me directly at james@prisonyoga.com.

~ James Fox MA, Founder and Director, Prison Yoga Project

You must be the change you want to see in the world. ~ Mohandas Gandhi

THE TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE SLEEPING

In spite of lots of promises and a wad of cash from the Justice Secretary and the Minster for Health, Andrew Lansley,  who signed up to divert mentally ill patients from the criminal justice system for proper health care to meet complex diagnosis, it appears, in that same old time-honoured fashion, not much is happening on the ground.

It took the tragic death of a son of a member of the Women's Institute to bring about this awareness.
How many more deaths is it going to take to actually do something about it? This isn't justice this is barbarism and didn't Hitler do something similar?

.Mentally ill treated like criminals