Prison Works - the proof old Tories don't want you to know
Prison works. So why won't we admit it? | David Green - Times Online
When Tony Blair took office in 1997 there were about 61,000 criminals in jail. The latest figure is 83,575. How many crimes would have been committed if those 22,000 additional offenders had been at large? The average crime rate admitted by newly incarcerated prisoners was 140 crimes a year and, for those on drugs, 257.
ould the increase in the prison population from 2006-07 to 2007-08 explain the fall in crime over the same period? Police-recorded crime fell by 476,900 offences.
Between April 2007 and April 2008 the prison population increased by 1,843. If the annual offending rate was 140, then 258,000 crimes would have been prevented. If the additional prisoners were all serious offenders, as the Government claims, then 473,000 crimes would have been prevented.
Sheer coincidence? Despite its bashfulness about prison, the Government plainly does not think so. It plans to increase prison capacity to 96,000 by 2014, despite the squeamishness of Lord Hurd of Westwell in a letter to The Times yesterday.
When he was Home Secretary from 1985 to October 1989, Lord Hurd set out to reduce the prison population and presided over one of the most rapid increases in crime yet. ...
The Government has lost confidence in itself to such an extent that it does not know how to claim credit for an effective policy when it has one. It should be shouting aloud that “prison works”.
And Hurd and his ilk should be sent back to the home and Matron instructed not to let him wander out again without having been given his tablets; and certainly Dave should be giving them a good ignoring.