Jon Bright (London, OK): While we wait for the delivery of our first titan prisons, Jack Straw is today urging magistrates to send fewer people to jail. He's arguing that there are more effective "non-custodial" penalties for short term sentences which are better at reforming prisoners. In general, prison seems ineffective at reform - though to get evangelical about other options because we're running out of space will look pretty transparent, especially coming from a government that has always tried to present itself as tough on crime.
The beginning of Straw's problems is summed up in this ONS graph - which is a little out of date, but captures the trend:
A prison population that had been relatively stable at 40,000 - 50,000 before 1993 suddenly took off, and has now almost doubled in 15 short years to 82,000 in 2008. I'm not an expert, but I've heard it suggested that this is mainly due to a combination of stricter sentencing laws and a decrease in effectiveness of rehabilitation services as prisons grow larger and prisoners are moved around more - meaning Titan jails would almost certainly contribute to the problem they would purport to solve. Anyone want to guess what the number will be in another 15 years?
