Re your editorial on the state of prisons (11 August), the prison population in England and Wales, over 86,000, is at a near record high, more than any country in western Europe. The government states its intention to create 20,000 new prison places by the mid-2020s, a matter of seeming political consensus. At the same time, the length of sentences is increasing inexorably.
Yet the weight of evidence is clear: prison does not work. It does not deter – there is no discernible link between levels of imprisonment and crime rates. Nor does prison rehabilitate – adults released from sentences of less than 12 months have a proven reoffending rate of 55.1%. And prison hardly delivers justice – most of those imprisoned are for non-violent offences. Indeed, prison itself is a site of violence and harm. In the year to June, 313 people died in prison, with 88 of those deaths self-inflicted, alongside almost 60,000 self-harm incidents. Prison is an ineffective, expensive intervention.
