English and Welsh bishops on the
need for prison reform
British and Welsh Bishops call for prison reform.(copyright by MaxPixel) |
The Bishops of England and Wales have issued a report
calling on the British government to make a series of changes to the judicial
system that pertains to the sentencing and conviction of prisoners.
By John Waters
The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales have published a
paper calling for a change to the system for sentencing convicted prisoners.
The paper entitled “Journey in Hope - A Catholic approach to sentencing reform”
calls for a variety of improvements in Sentencing, as well as greater involvement
of faith communities in rehabilitating prisoners.
Increase in prison population
The report highlights the fact that “the prison population
has increased by 77% over the last 30 years. This is despite a notable fall in
reported crime over the last decade.” The report goes on to highlight the
unsustainable nature of the present system of sentencing prisoners , with the
length of custodial sentences increasing whilst prison funding has been reduced
over the last decade.
Call for reform
The report calls for a reform of the manner in which
sentencing is carried out, with the change beginning in Parliament. One passage
states “The view often expressed by the Government is that sentencing is wholly
a matter for the Courts and the Sentencing Council. However, without political
initiative there will be no consistent change in approach towards sentencing.
Parliament has a decisive role in determining sentencing practice through the
changes it makes to the law. Greater consideration should be made during the
passage of legislation on the impact to the prison population of introducing
new offences or revising sentence lengths for existing ones.” It goes on to
note that, with a more high profile parliamentary involvement, there will be a
greater public awareness of bodies such as a the sentencing council, leading to
more resources being diverted to such groups. The Bishops also observe that
such reforms must be carefully thought out and planned, rather than used as
vehicle to quickly increase a government’s popularity.
Training Judges
A call for more training for judges is one key point of the
report, suggesting that by looking into an offender’s background and motivation
for committing the crime, the judge might use a different sentence rather than
sending the offender to prison. Greater use of American style “Problem solving
courts” is suggested, as well as rediscovering the idea of “Restorative
justice.” This is a concept which focuses on questions such as “who has been
impacted by the crime and how were they affected?”, rather than simply “Which
laws were broken and what is the punishment?”
Women
One of the final chapters of the report notes that, while on
5% of prisoners are women, 46% of those women have themselves been victims of
crimes which, often, were far more serious than the crime for which they
themselves were sentenced. Greater use of “Women’s centres” is called for,
pointing to the fact that many women who use these centres do not go on to
reoffend.
More resources for managing prisoners with mental health
problems are also called for.
The English and Welsh Bishops hope that their paper may
serve to widen and inform the debate on prison reform and allow for the
personal development and growth of those in prison, something often called for
by Pope Francis.
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