A senior bishop has said it is “unjust” that people committing crimes today get longer sentences than those who committed similar offences a generation ago.
The Rt Rev Richard Moth, the Catholic Church’s spokesperson on prisons, said: “Sentence inflation continues, in my view, to be a big problem. The fact that you could commit a crime 20 years ago, and commit the same crime today, and the sentence is longer – I find that to be unjust.”
In an interview with Inside Time, he said that longer sentences do little to reduce reoffending, especially when short-staffed jails are unable to offer rehabilitation courses. He urged politicians and judges to rethink their approach – putting a greater emphasis on tackling drug addiction, restorative justice, and allowing prisoners to live in the community on tags.
Christmas in prison
‘We talk about Christmas traditionally as the season of good cheer, but I don’t think that sort of Dickensian jollity really cuts the mustard in prison’ – Catholic Bishop for Prisons talks to Ben Leapman about crime, sentencing, and the stresses of a festive season inside
It is known as “sentence inflation.” Year by year, the jail terms handed down by judges and magistrates have been getting longer. Over the past decade, according to Government figures, the average sentence in England and Wales has gone from 14 months to 22 months – an increase of 58 per cent.
The public has not noticed. An opinion poll commissioned by the Prison Reform Trust found that the man or woman in the street believes sentences are getting shorter, not longer. But one person who has been paying attention is the Rt Rev Richard Moth. Ten years ago, in December 2012, Bishop Richard became the ‘Bishop for Prisons’, the Catholic Church’s spokesman on jails and the criminal justice system. He has noticed, and he is worried.
Longer sentences
He says: “Sentence inflation continues, in my view, to be a big problem. The fact that you could commit a crime 20 years ago, and commit the same crime today, and the sentence is longer – I find that to be unjust. And I’m not sure it helps. I’m not sure the longer sentences prevent recidivism, and I’m not sure they necessarily help rehabilitation, especially when the prisons are under such pressure. If you’ve got somebody in prison and the courses they want to follow can’t happen for whatever reason – shortage of staff, staff that can’t get out to cells, all those kind of problems – then the longer prison sentence isn’t going to help rehabilitation necessarily, and the cost to the taxpayer is horrendous. So, is there another way of dealing with some of these things?”
He has suggestions. Perhaps young prisoners could be offered more programmes to tackle the root causes of their offending, be it drugs, social problems or simple loneliness. Perhaps more use could be made of tagging, to allow women with childcare responsibilities to spend more of their sentence at home. Perhaps restorative justice, where offenders meet their victims face-to-face to apologise for their crimes, could play a bigger part. He made some of these points in a recent round-table discussion with MPs, and he will do so again at a forthcoming event with judges. He says: “We’re trying, as the Church in this country, to get a voice in these places. I’m not suggesting we’re going to change everything overnight, but we’re trying to raise the issues, to get people who are in positions where they could make a change to really think about it.”
Redemption
Speaking in an interview with Inside Time, Bishop Richard also expressed concern about the recent increase in the number of remand prisoners, which now stands at around 15,000 across the UK. Covid and the recent barristers’ strike added to the backlog of court cases, leading to defendants spending longer inside awaiting trial. He said: “I’m conscious that in some cases, people are on remand for very significant amounts of time, they then get to court, and get sentenced, perhaps to less than the time they’ve spent on remand. And that can’t be right.”
Back in 2004, Catholic bishops warned in a report called ‘A Place of Redemption’ that prisoners were spending too long in their cells and not long enough in work or education. Not much improved, and then the Covid pandemic which struck in 2020 made matters worse, putting jails on lockdown. Bishop Richard says: “Some of the problems that A Place of Redemption spoke about, things like the hours somebody might be in their cell being far too high – that’s been made worse by Covid. And that’s nobody’s fault, it was bound to be the case, but that happened on top of a system that isn’t really as it should be. I think prison staff are doing the best job they can in difficult circumstances but I think there are a number of things that still need to be addressed.” (Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, is less forgiving, claiming that jails are stuck in a “post-Covid torpor”, lacking the will or the staffing levels to restore normal regimes).
Happy family occasion
Bishop Richard has a busy Christmas schedule planned – a carol concert at Lewes, Christmas Eve at Coldingley and Christmas Day at Send. All three jails are in his patch; as well as his prison role he is the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton. For most of the nation, Christmas is a happy family occasion, but some prisoners dread it because it reminds them of what they are missing. So, what message does the bishop offer to those spending the festive season behind bars?
“I think Christmas is a poignant time for people in prison,” he says. “I think it can be a huge strain because they’re away from family, away from friends. Imaginations run wild at times – what are they up to? Am I missing out? Or are they having a miserable time because I’m here? We talk about Christmas traditionally as the season of good cheer, but I don’t think that sort of Dickensian jollity really cuts the mustard in prison. I tend to take a slightly different slant; I describe it as the season of hope. The Lord is born for us and is our hope, and so even when we’re in difficult situations we can find hope in God’s presence in our lives.
“When we talk about what Christmas is really about – God’s care for his people, God’s care for the world he has created, bringing hope to people – that starts to make sense. There is something beyond this experience and there is the possibility of new life for me, as someone who’s carrying out their sentence. There are possibilities, there can be new things – I think that’s the real message.”
Bishop Richard assures all readers of his prayers and good wishes for Christmas.
Credit: Source link