The police rounded on the Home Secretary yesterday, accusing him of letting
down officers by failing to provide enough prison places for the criminals
they are catching.
Leaders of junior and middle-ranking officers in England and Wales expressed
dismay that John Reid was appealing to courts to jail fewer people. They
said that he and other Labour ministers had “let down” officers who worked
hard to catch crooks.
Chief constables privately backed the public criticism of the Government’s
failure to provide enough jail cells, which has resulted in severe
overcrowding.
The police criticism of Mr Reid and ministers is deeply embarrassing for the
Government and its credentials on law and order.
The attack on the Home Secretary came as the Prison Service was forced to
start putting remand prisoners in cells in a wing at Norwich jail, parts of
which has been condemmed as “unfit for human habitation”.
It also emerged that cells at the Old Bailey in Central London were on standby
to receive prisoners as the jails ran out of cell spaces in London and the
South East.
Prison numbers rose again overnight, taking the total population yesterday to
80,070, including an estimated 400 in police cells around England and Wales.
Eleven prisoners were forced to spend Tuesday night in cells at Inner London
Crown Court.
But as the Prison Service waited for action from Mr Reid, who is desperate to
avoid having to order the early release of offenders, the police turned on
him and the Government. Rick Naylor, president of the Police
Superintendents’ Association, said that officers who were working hard to
catch criminals had been “let down” by Mr Reid and other Labour ministers,
who had been warned about the impending jails fiasco for years but had
failed to act.
His comments came after Mr Reid and other senior Cabinet ministers urged the
courts to imprison only the most dangerous and persistent criminals.
Last night the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, agreed to
issue guidance to judges throughout England and Wales exhorting them to use
prisons as a last resort and only for the most dangerous and violent
criminals.
In a carefully crafted statement, which took hours to materialise, Lord
Phillips made clear that judges would not change their existing policy
simply to help ministers out over the prison crisis.
Mr Naylor said: “The Government should have seen this coming. Ministers have
been harping on about tougher sentences for violent crime for a long time.
“It has consequences if you ask the police to work harder and ask the
judiciary to hand out stiffer sentences. But they have failed to build the
places to put all these offenders.
“Prison officers, in particular, have been telling the Government for years
that there is a growing crisis. Now that crisis is here it seems to have
come as a surprise to some people.”
The Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said it was
essential that sentences passed by the courts were appropriate and not a
result of the chronic shortage of prison places.
Jan Berry, chairman of the federation, said: “This is a problem that has been
caused by underinvestment from the Home Office and when one considers that
there will be less police officers on our streets as the result of further
cuts we have to ask who will be pro- tecting the public from those the
courts have let back out?” As prison staff waited to see whether Mr Reid
would reach decisions on options to tackle prison overcrowding. A-wing of
Norwich jail was hurriedly reopened 48 hours after it was declared empty as
part of an £18 million refurbishment scheme.
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It will house 150 remand prisoners in accommodation part of which was
criticised by Anne Owers, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, as “unfit for
human habitation”.
She found leaking sewage pipes which caused dirty cells and a foul smell in
parts of the wing.
Trish Phillips, of the Independent Monitoring Boards — the former Board of
Visitors — described conditions in the block as Victorian. She added: “It’s
horrible . . . in a very bad state of repair and difficult to decorate.
“About 20 years ago, when it was decided that it was really not acceptable to
have buckets in cells, the prison put in soil stacks and integral toilets,
but it was done on the cheap and the soil stacks leak.”
Charles Bushell, the general secretary of the Prison Governors’ Association,
has given warning that Mr Reid’s plan to provide 8,000 prison spaces over
the next five years would not solve the problem.
“Everyone has seen this situation coming,” he said. “It re- occurs every six
months or so. The fallacy, in our view, is the suggestion that we can ever
build sufficient jails to meet the demand. The only alternative in the long
term is to address the demand side.”
Reid’s options
Urge judges and magistrates to jail fewer people. Unknown outcome as it
depends on individual decisions in the courts
Urge courts to make greater use of bail rather than remanding suspects into
court. Marginal impact on numbers
Encourage governors to move more prisoners into open jails. About 300 spaces
Press governors to make greater use of home detention curfew under which
low-risk prisoners released up to 4F months early. Could free up 1,000
spaces at any time
Two prison ships: have to be purchased, brought to UK and moored near ports to
allow facilities to be provided. Could provide 300-400 spaces per vessel
Transfer foreign national prisoners from jails to immigration detention
centres, releasing immigration detainees. Hardened prisoners not suitable
for less robust immigration centres
Release foreign national prisoners who are still in jail despite having served
their sentence: estimated 1,000 places
Disused army camps: Reid has already abandoned plan to convert barracks in
Dover
Find disused hospitals for conversion. Costly, takes months to convert, so
does not relieve the immediate crisis
Transitional home leave under which prisoners are released but still under
a form of licence — does not provide enough spaces
Reid orders thousands of low-risk prisoners to be released — the nuclear
option
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