Kate Taylor

By Kate Taylor katetaylor

Prison life – over crowded and under staffed; yesterday’s official annual report paints a grim picture, the question is, is incarceration worthwhile?

The chief prison inspector Nick Hardwick released his annual report on Tuesday, July 14, showing yet another increase in violent incidents, which Hardwick claims is fuelled by legal highs.

For the 12 month period finishing in December of last year, over 16,000 assaults were reported in English and Welsh prisons. Over 3,000 were assaults on staff; teamed with huge staffing cuts, it seems hard to see how this can be combated.

Aside from what goes on within prisons, what happens when offenders are released? Open Justice, part of the official gov.uk websites; states that in Lincoln Prison, the rate of re-offending is at 62% for sentences under 12 months, and 39% for terms over 12 months.

Given that two of the five ‘reasons’ people are sent to prison include ‘changing an offender’s behaviour’ and ‘reduce crime in the future’ one has to ask where we’re going wrong.

In the UK, when our prison system hits the headlines it’s usually littered with the luxurious lifestyles inmates seem to enjoy. I’m not sure communal sanitation and access to daytime television is what I’d consider a luxury, but perception is reality.

With self-harm up over a third since 2010, statistics suggest it’s not exactly a cushy lifestyle. So perhaps it’s not the lack of punishment that’s keeping re-offending up, but the lack of rehabilitation available, particularly towards the end of a sentence.

In Norway, Bastoy on houses some of the country’s worst offenders. Prisoners can apply to transfer here in the last five years of their ‘stretch’, and guards act more like social workers than security.

In Bastoy, there are no cells. Prisoners live in small communes, work a variety of jobs from mechanics to operating the ferry that takes visitors and staff to the island, and have free time for hobbies.

Many would be up in arms at such a notion over here, but with one of the lowest re-offending rates in the world at 16%, they’re doing something right.

Bastoy is about changing lives; because that’s what we’re talking about, people’s lives. Prisoners have families, friends, partners and children. Many are suffering from mental health issues such as addictions, which lead them to commit crime in the first place.

Our system is not equipped to deal with them, taking a harder line on offences such as drug use than dangerous driving.

If we are going to improve things, we need to rethink our long-established ideologies. Whether focussing on improving prisons, avoiding them for non-violent offenders or hopefully, a mixture of both; we need to give the humanity back to victims and prisoners alike.

Kate Taylor is a sociologist, mother and tea and cake lover. When not working in sociological and marketing research with her company, Galilee Research, Kate can be found talking about political philosophy on the school run.

By Kate Taylor katetaylor

Hear hear, no, don’t ooook over there…

Mr Deputy Speaker had a hard task on his hands today, as the Chancellor announced the summer budget. Jeers, hear hears and general defiance could be heard throughout George Osborne’s speech, along with cameramen pulling in tight on the Chancellor to avoid filming the ensuing chaos.

Osborne repeatedly pointed out that the country needs a Conservative government; they have what it takes to get things done – unless you’re under 25. Or don’t have job security. Or you’re a landlord (or indeed tenant). Or God forbid you breed more than twice.

Welfare cuts of a staggering £12bn have been outlined, less than half that is set to be made in revenue from off-shore accounts and other illegal tax avoidance.

Rather interestingly, HMRC figures for 2012/13 show that tax evasion accounts for losses four times as much as benefit fraud, standing at a whopping £4.1bn.

On closer inspection, these cuts include restricting child tax credits to two children for those born after 2017. If this is the case I’m intrigued to see how the childcare element (which is set to be increased to 30 free hours) will come into play for the third and subsequent offspring in families.

Tax credits have enabled families to get back to work (which is what our government so sorely wants, no, demands – regardless of situation) in a way they never could have done 20 years ago.

In addition, the benefits cap is set to be slashed by £6,000; down to £23k in London and £20k outside respectively. On paper this looks all well and good, but it’s the practical our government seem ill prepared for.

Osborne declares that those ‘who can work are expected to look for work’, parents of children three or over (as opposed to five) will now be forced to find work, and accept any that comes their way, to be eligible for universal credit.

Meanwhile the big hurrah of the day is the national living wage teetering on the horizon. Employers will be forced to pay £7.20 to workers, rising to nine pounds in 2020. The NLW has been advocated by, well, everyone, and can’t come too soon. As long as you’re over 25.

In fact, young people across the board seemed to have been quite literally pushed off it. Not only are they not included in the new wage reforms, they will no longer be eligible for automatic acceptance with housing benefit if they are between 18 and 21.

The government seems to think that young adults can just live a happy, poverty stricken state of existence living in their parents loft room. Lord help them if their folks live in social housing, they’ll have to pay bedroom tax. There is also set to be a ‘youth obligation’ scheme in which 18 to 21 year olds are expected to ‘earn or learn’.

On top of this, maintenance grants for university students from the poorest backgrounds are set to be scrapped in favour of loans. Leaving graduates with yet more debt, alas not to fear the UK’s GDP will be shiny as a new penny.

The Chancellor tells us that there are more students attending university than ever, disproving Labour’s theory that the loan increases would put lower income families off. On the contrary; as it is, going to university enables people to receive a steady stream of income for the span of their degree, including allowances for flexible working hours and childcare.

Leaving with what easily amounts as decades worth of debt (and little prospect of a graduate job), I fear the Conservatives have eroded the crumbling walls of our upcoming generation too much this time.

Kate Taylor is a sociologist, mother and tea and cake lover. When not working in sociological and marketing research with her company, Galilee Research, Kate can be found talking about political philosophy on the school run.