Watched from the comfort of my armchair, there was definitely an eerie feel to last nights Question Time on BBC1 from the Chapel at HMP Wormwood Scrubs in London. Even though there were only a handful of prisoners present, the audience seemed unusually subdued, I suspect just by the significance of being inside a prison. As a frequent visitor to gaols over the years, I can understand that. They are frequently foreboding places and of course the Victorians were more than keen to emphasise that aspect in their design and architectural style.
Maybe that partly explains why Ken Clarke came out of the encounter pretty unscathed. He had already endured hours of torture by the media for his inept comments about sentencing in rape cases and must have been dreading further trial by humiliation on Question Time. However I suspect in truth, unlike many politicians, he has always tended towards plain speaking and mostly the avoidance of trying to score cheap political points. As a result he has a good deal of political and personal credit in the bank, whatever the views of the Daily Mail might be.
Shamy Chakrabarti of Liberty was particularly at pains not to pour oil on the situation and accorded Ken a good deal of respect, referring to him continually as Lord Chancellor rather than Justice Secretary. Even Jack Straw refrained from putting the boot in and noticeably failed to support his leaders call for Ken to be sacked. Melanie Phillips from the said Daily Mail also seemed unusually reluctant to be confrontational and agreed that Ken did contrition 'charmingly.' Ken must have been expecting much worse, but the audience listened in respectful silence to his apology which I'm sure will not go unnoticed by number ten Downing Street.
The same can't be said of Jack Straw who once more displayed all the worst characteristics of a politician intent on using the criminal justice system for scoring political points. As one of the main architects of the last Labour governments 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' policies and hence explosion in prison numbers, he had a well-deserved rougher time from the audience. Not only does he continue to state that his policies of imprisonment have worked and he would jail even more, he scandalously blames the Probation Service alone for failing to reduce the resulting re-offending rates. Of course there is history between Jack Straw and the Probation Service as it was he who singled us out for special attention and in effect cultural purging.
There is no doubt it's been a bad week for those of us hoping for a change in direction from the likes of yesterdays politician Jack Straw. However, it could have been much worse. There is a general feeling that Ken has succeeded in digging himself out of a large hole and will be keeping his job for some time yet. But the Prime Minister is nervous and the draft sentencing proposals are now delayed a few weeks whilst further consideration is given to them. The government is between a rock and a hard place though. The proposed increase in the discount for early guilty pleas would deliver the lions share in reduced prison places. Without it, savings have to be made some other way. Has David Cameron got the courage and political skill to back his Justice Secretary fully or not?
I actually think that is is a rather bad idea to discount sentences as a way of reducing prison population. Doing it to encourage people to plead guilty early and avoid crime victims from having to undergo the ordeal of a trial is fair enough but sentences should be based on the needs of justice, and not a bookkeeping exercise.
ReplyDeleteA better way of reducing prison numbers would be to try and divert some of those with mental difficulties or drug addictions away from prison and into treatment programs. The catch with that is of course that it would cost money.
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteThanks for that. Idealy we would want to see a whole range of initiatives that encourages a life without resorting to crime. As you say though, it costs money and now isn't a good time to be suggesting increased expenditure.
Cheers,
Jim
I think Shamy Chakrabarti probably read/listened to Clarke's comments, rather than the tabloid hype.
ReplyDeleteI challenge anyone who really read/listened to Clarke's comments to think they had any relation to the tabloid reporting.
(moving onto a separate issue)
The only way to reduce drug offending and the aquisitional offending behind it is to legalise drugs. Unfortunately protecting our citizens and social fabric is seen as less important than appeasing the USA so the daft prohibition will continue.
Return of Capital Punishment would help reduce the prison population quite quickly. Not only would we no longer have to incarcerate murders for life, but I suspect that we would also get a reduction in violent crime because of the risk of killing someone by mistake. Allowing householders to have handguns and shoot intruders would produce a further reduction, not because of all the dead burglars, but, as has been shown in the US, burglars are far less inclined to take the risk in those states where such a law applies.
ReplyDeleteA couple of easy suggestions for reducing crime and the prison population, Ken can have them free of charge!
How would Jack Straw score on the psycopathy scale?
ReplyDeleteI'll confess a personal loathing of the man right back to when he was a student, but does anybody out there have a view?
Ray.