Offender Management Bill

I think that the Minister was referring to the debate in Committee on 23 January, when I moved a new clause 4, which read:"““The Secretary of State shall by direction at the start of every year and in respect of every provider of probation services, set targets concerning the reduction of offending or reoffending by those charged with or convicted of offences, or those given conditional cautions in the area in which the provider carries out its functions under this Act.””" That new clause is not identical to the amendment that the Minister has just moved, but the broad thrust of it is the same. At the end of our debate, the Minister said in reference to our new clause:"““It is not necessary to put that requirement in statute.””––[Official Report, Offender Management Public Bill Committee, 23 January 2007; c. 212, 215.]" If he has changed his mind, I for one am very pleased about that. Clearly, one of the primary aims, if not the primary aim, of the criminal justice system—and, for that matter, a Government—is to ensure that the public are protected from crime and criminals. If adopting Government amendment No. 12 and thus inserting proposed subsection (2B)(a) in the Bill focuses the minds of those whom engage in that sort of activity, so much the better. The second aim is the reduction of reoffending. As was the case in Committee, I am worried—as, I dare say, are the wider public—by the appalling rate of reoffending among those who have been released from custody. The reoffending rate for adult prisoners within two years of their release from custody is 67 per cent, while the rate for young offenders is nearer to 80 per cent. If I may say so, that represents a huge waste of public money. Housing an adult prisoner costs about £37,500 a year, while the cost of housing a young offender is about £70,000. If we are putting those people in custody, yet they are coming out in exactly the same condition in terms of education, drug addiction or social aptitude and then reoffending, we are wasting the public’s money. As I pointed out in Committee, I want the Government to deal with the problem. Prisons and young offender institutions are getting fuller and fuller, but the reoffending rate is not decreasing. There is a direct correlation between the reoffending rate and the overcrowding of our prisons. I visited Wandsworth prison yesterday. I would guess that 80 per cent. of the cells in the prison are double-occupied. The number of people in big London prisons who are crammed into small spaces and living in fairly unhygienic conditions is simply appalling. Not so very long ago, a wing of Norwich prison was decanted of its prisoners so that the accommodation could be improved. The prisoners had been living in their own sewage. The governor and the Prison Service clearly needed to do something about that, but, owing to overcrowding, the wing has had to be reoccupied. The situation is appalling for not only the prisoners, but the prison officers who have to work in such filthy conditions. If we think that reformed and rehabilitated prisoners are going to be placed back on our streets when they are coming out of a prison estate in which some of them are living in their own sewage, we are misguided. The reduction of reoffending is a hugely important social and moral public policy aim. I am thus delighted that it will be included in the Bill through proposed subsection (2B)(b). However, such a measure will require the Government to deal rapidly and effectively with overcrowding. Overcrowding in our prison estate is the bedrock problem that is preventing a reduction in reoffending. It prevents people from getting on to courses to help them to get off drugs, or to learn to read, write and to do simple mathematics. Yesterday, in HMP Wandsworth, I saw that people in that large London prison, most of whom were probably serving sentences shorter than three years, far too often got ready to go on a literacy or numeracy course, or a course to deal with alcohol or drug abuse, but then had to be moved on to another prison because of overcrowding. That causes them to miss out on such courses because when they get to the new prison, they go to the bottom of the queue for the course that is relevant to their needs. Although I do not have much sympathy for those who commit crimes and have to be sent to prison, it is utterly counter-productive merely to warehouse people in prison and then to expect them not to reoffend when they come out. Proposed paragraph (c) sets out the aim of the ““proper punishment of offenders””. We all want the proper punishment of offenders not because we are vindictive, although retribution is one of the three elements of any criminal justice punishment system, but because we want offenders to come to terms with their offending. One of the things that I saw yesterday at HMP Wandsworth—I think that it is occurring at other prisons on a patchwork basis—was a restorative justice course called the Sycamore Tree programme run by a non-state organisation. I want to pay particular tribute to the people involved in that and to the governor and deputy governors of Wandsworth prison, who have permitted in their overcrowded facilities their overworked prison officers to facilitate the work of the programme. The prisoners whom I met yesterday on the restorative justice course really were for the first time coming to terms with the nature of the consequences of their criminal activities. There was a group of 12 inmates in that room, at least three of whom admitted that they had been in custody, on and off, since they were 15. These were men in their 30s and 40s. At last, they had been brought face to face with their offending behaviour, and not only did they realise that it was a waste of their lives, but, as a consequence of a proper sentence plan—and that is what I would call proper punishment of offenders—they had come to realise that their criminal behaviour affected their families and children. One man was in tears as he told how his mother, aged 83, had recently died, ashamed that her son had spent his entire adult life, but for a few breaks, in prison. I did not have an opportunity to ask him questions, but I assume that he was unable to leave prison to visit his mother as she was ill and dying or to go to her funeral. The proper punishment of offenders means not just locking people up; it means dealing with them in such a way that they come out less likely to reoffend.