Terry Waite on prison reform and rehabilitation - part 2

In the past years swingeing cuts have been imposed by central government right across society and the Criminal Justice System has not been exempt. The prison budget was cut with the result that large numbers of senior staff were encouraged to take premature retirement, thus leaving many establishments seriously understaffed. For a prisoner to get from his or her cell to an educational class or whatever, that prisoner has to be escorted but with the cuts there were no longer enough staff. Result? Prisoners were kept for longer on the wing or, even more punitively, in their individual cells.

It should come as no surprise to anyone to learn that in the past couple of years British prisons have been in a state of turmoil bordering on anarchy. What do you expect if you lock people up for hour after hour, day after day, with little or nothing to occupy their minds? It is a recipe for trouble.

A prisoner who, for whatever reason, may have developed a grudge against society is hardly going to change his or her ways if the only limited contact is with punitive authority figures and where rehabilitation is nothing more than a fantasy. Effective rehabilitation is staff-intensive and, as I said earlier, requires highly trained competent staff. Prisoners need to be treated individually and as persons, not as brutes to be caged. Such a change will not show a good ‘bottom line’ at the end of the financial year but in terms of reducing re-offending it has been demonstrated that it is the way to go. The financial returns will be seen in the long term.

The Government has said that they are recruiting 6,000 new staff to remedy the problems, but that is a clever use of words. They are only ‘new’ in the sense that they are individuals replacing the many people, including senior staff, who were prematurely retired and the majority of the new recruits into the prison service have no experience whatsoever of prison life.

I have many friends within the Prison Service whom I have known for years and I think I can say, with a high degree of certainty, that the role of the prison officer is one of the most important staff roles in a prison.

In a recent conversation with one such officer, who had been an ordinary prison officer for almost forty years, he told me that during the whole of his career he never once had had to draw his baton on any prisoner and I can assure you he had worked with many prisoners who would be considered to be highly dangerous.

What was his secret? Well, he took time to listen to a prisoner and understand why the man or woman had behaved as they behaved. He was not quick to condemn. He was certainly no pushover, but he was empathetic, and he believed that no matter what crime the individual had committed that person could still make something of their life. In short, he was able to communicate hope to many who were regarded by the general public as hopeless cases.

I asked a former Governor of Grendon (the prison with a very low rate of re-offending) how frequently he met with prisoners. He told me he did two rounds a day and sometimes three. He felt it important to know the prisoners and the staff and to hear at first-hand what was happening in the prison for which he had a responsibility.

To take an interest in individual cases takes time and staff. It is costly in terms of both, but it can lay the foundation for an individual prisoner being truly rehabilitated back into life. What the system needs are more highly trained officers and much greater investment needs to be put into the selection and training of such men and women.

It is not my intention to convey that the whole of the Criminal Justice System is totally dysfunctional. There are some prisons where, because of skilled and effective leadership, have been able to manage reasonably well but there are not enough. The new Prisons’ Minister, following as he does a whole succession of appointees who have lasted but a few months, has pledged to get some order into the system but he has his work cut out. He may succeed in bringing some calm, but more is needed than the restoration of order.

The time is long overdue for a radical reform of our approach to the punishment and rehabilitation of offenders and the first major hurdle to be overcome is to convince the electorate that, in the long term such a reform is definitely in their best interest. That requires courageous and visionary leadership from politicians responsible for the system.

An Evening with Terry Waite at Southwark Cathedral takes place on 29 March. Tickets are available now.