If the quality of a civilisation can be measured by how it treats it's most vulnerable citizens, prison statistics are guide to the type of society Tony Blair offers us.
Prison numbers continue to rise. There are now over 77,000 in gaol and official forecasts predict further growth of at least another 10,000, if not double that. Already the number is 50% higher than it was a decade ago (50,000), after rising only 13,000 in the preceding 25 years.
In November, two and a half years after Labour's Lord Chancellor described _une numbers as "unsupportable" the newly-resigned head of the prison and probation service, Martin Narey, launched a scathing attack on the penal
He described as "simply gross" the fact that 16,000 prisoners are subject to overcrowding - sharing cells which have a toilet and in which they also have to eat Their Tood.
"Crime has been falling for some years", Martin Narey said. "Some crime, burglary for instance, has fallen very significantly indeed. So there 1s simply no need for us to incarcerate the numbers we do. And in particular there is no need for us to lock away 3,000 children." Vulnerable
The vulnerability of young peopic In lne system is a palticular scandal - 60% have been in care at some point, 75% have not attended school beyond the age of 13 due to exclusions, 85% show signs of having personality disorders and 25% of males have suffered violence at home.
The system is little more than a dump for those with educational or mental health problems.
About half have lower level reading skills than an 11-year old. Up to three quarters of men in prison suffer from two or more mental disorders and one in ten has functional psyChosIs.
There are currently 5,000 in prison that Narey describes as "profoundly mentally ill" -most requiring urgent transfer to NHS facilities.
According to the Howard League for Penal Reform, a shocking prisoners, including 17 children, have committed suicide in the last decade - a substantially higher rate than in the community.
This is clearly preventable given that the proportion 1s highest in the most overcrowded establishments and almost a third occur within the first week of a prisoner entering custody.
Underlying all these problems lies the cancer of racism. In the decade to 2003 the proportion of ethnic minority inmates increased from 16% to 25% but only 5.7% of the staff come from the same background.
That such a high proporCompanies offenders need professional or expertise. tion of black youth end up in gaol is an indictment of the criminal justice system. But how they are treated once inside is a scandal in itself. Murdered
In 2000 Zahid Mubarek was murdered by his Nazi psychopath cellmate in Feltham Young Offenders Institute. The report of the public inquiry into this racist murder due out. in February. It is expected to be
finding that very critical, racism is still rife behind bars.
This is despite the prison service promising big improvements two years ago after a Commission for Racial Equality inquiry condemned it for racial discrimination on 17 separate counts. A further two internal reports found widespread failings
- WILD racist abuse and belligerent behaviour from staff and swastikas daubed on walls.
None of this information is controversial or new. So what has Labour's response been? £2.5 billion has been spent on new prisons since 1997. And each prisoner nOW COSTS around £40,000 a year to keep inside. But this hasn't stopped the system lurching from one over-crowaing crisis to lne
The government has been on record for some time as acknowledging that this is unsustainable. But all its solutions point in the other direction. A stream of laws have criminalised young people through ASBOs, increasedl SCULCICES. reduced defendants' rights and attacked the right to bail.
According to the Prison Reform Trust over the past five years there has been a big increase in the number of prisoners recalled to custody having been released licence. In 2003-4 the figure was 8,300.
But the majority of these were not recalled tor commit. ting any crime, simply for technical breaches of their licences. A situation completely under government control.
The latest initiative is the privatisation of the probation service. I nis nas been widely condemned least because it is being rushed through without consultation or public debate.
Howard League director Frances Crook has stated that "these are dangerous proposals which increase the risk to the public reduce cunne
Prison privatisation (which is more advanced than in any other European country has resulted in lower wages and conaluons. higher staff turnover, poorer training and the fragmentation and uncerlalnty associatea with lime limited contracts. And it has undermined public accountability and control. Private sector
Although only a minority of prisons are private sector, they introduce values by which paoncy-run prisons also have to be managed.
The private sector, because it's motive is profit, is bound to want more prisoners ratner than less and will look to economies of scale and other cuts. There can be little confidence in its role in cutting Inmate numbers and Improving conditions.
To privatise probation, regional committees of business people will be set up to "sell off offenders the lowest bidder", as Crook puts it. Companies bidding to no professional qualifications or expertise. Even serious, violent and sex offenders will be managed for commercial gain.
In another massive restructuring exercise, conducted
little public again debate, the prison and probation systems are being bought under one unitary institution. Crook warns:
"The National Offender Management Service will be a hugely bureaucratic new machine that costs the taxpayer a fortune through an increased use of prison and a failure to deal with re-offending. This way leads to more crime and more misery."
Blair came to power promising to be "tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime l
But behind the relentless new legislation, privatisation and restructuring lies Labour's commitment to neoliberal economics This means only the first half of the slogan applies, because crime is fuelled by government policy.
The prison population in this country is proportionately 50% higher than any other country 1n Europe, greater even than some of the world's MOS! ICDIeSsIVe regimes (Burma, China and Saudi Arabia). Prison capital
Only the USA outstrips us in the West. With 2.1 million under lock and key, it has 25 per cent of the world's prisoners despite having only 5 per cent of the population.
It is no coincidence that Britain and the USA are two countries in the neo-liberal vanguard. Stripping back welfarism, introducing job "flexibility", longer hours and lower wages not only fuel crime - by atomising individuals, exacerbating social inequality and undermining the social institutions that create social solidarity.
Neo-liberalism also generates a rabid functional need for mechanisms of social discipline.
Only a fundamental transformation of social and economic policies would tackle the causes of crime - pumping sorely needed cash into education, housing, mental health, youth and social services and support for alcohol and drug addicts.
The deprivation, inequality, alienation and racism that is the breeding ground of anti-social Denaviolt and crime have to be addressed.