Prisons in England and Wales are overflowing, again. Police cells are being requisitioned, again. Over the years, prison numbers go up and up – even though the Sentencing Council itself finds scant evidence that more time in jail does any good. Prisons are bursting at the seams because of ever-lengthening sentences. Damian Hinds, the minister for prisons, is eager to blame the barristers’ strike for this crisis. That’s outrageous: barristers’ strikes have merely highlighted the existing prison logjam.
Here’s the real cause: the public’s appetite for locking people up seems insatiable. Nothing is ever enough. The more politicians implement tougher sentences, the greater the public taste for even stiffer penalties. Fact-free, tabloid-stoked impulses for vengeance merge with politicians’ desire to out-tough each other on crime.
