Readers respond to an article by Frances Crook, the outgoing head of the Howard League for Penal Reform, about the need for radical change to the prison system
Frances Crook has been a voice of reason in the charity sector for 35 years (The reform of prisons has been my life’s work, but they are still utterly broken, 10 August). Like her, I have led several charities to make some sense of imprisonment and to help people come back into the community better, not worse. She is right that reform is at the bottom of the agenda for recent governments, irrespective of the fact that it costs us all a lot of money.
How many people know that a year in prison costs about £40,000, somewhat more than private schools? The total cost of the roughly 80,000 prisoners in the system is more than £3bn a year. Budgets have been cut year after year and all but the most basic education projects have largely ceased to exist. I chair the board of a small charity, Sussex Pathways, which provides volunteer key workers who work on a release plan with prison residents on a one-to-one basis for about three months, looking at an individual’s needs including housing, health, addictions, education, family ties, employment and so on. The reduction in the likelihood of reoffending is about 80%, whereas without this support, it’s the exact opposite. It shouldn’t just be down to charities to try to mend some of the most challenging of society’s ills.
Margaret Carey
Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex