Drawing on available evidence is it true to say that there is a crisis in the British prison system?
Before we contemplate answering such a question the first thing one must aim to understand is the specific meaning given to the term 'crisis.' It has to be put in some context. If by crisis one means that the prison system is teetering on the brink of collapse then the evidence available would suggest that there is no crisis at all. However the more likely interpretation is that there are actually very serious problems that either cannot or will not be alleviated. now when you look at evidence under this guise, one could strongly argue that our prison system is in a state of crisis. Presenting such an argument inevitably leads one to explore the role of the prison system within contemporary society, and whether it is still fulfilling the purpose it set out to achieve. According to Michael Foucault in Garland (1990)....
"The prison has always been a failure in penological terms, but it successfully achieves important political effects at a wider social level, which is why it has never been abandoned."
What one can surmise from Foucault's thoughts are that whilst the prison may be a failure within penological terms, with the existence of a penal crisis strengthening the argument, it has actually been a success within the circles of politics.
In order to understand a crisis we need to further look at who this system benefits, it is not enough to simply state that it has been a success in political climbs. However let us start with the purpose of prison, and aptly with the work of Foucault, who carried out vast amounts of research regarding incarceration and subsequently published the well known 'Prisons and punishment' book. Cording to him the reason as to why prisons persist are primarily due the fact that it is rooted in the very fabric of society, and secondly it carries out specific functions to great effect. Effectively what may be deemed failure on an overt level, could be assessed as success on a covert level. The creation, by the ruling class, of crime and delinquency enhances the fear of prison and guarantees the authority and power of the police. Prisons ensure that criminals are known to the authorities, and once the threats have been identified the system keeps control over them for a specified amount of time....
"As a state controlled apparatus of repression and ideology, penality plays a role in more extended social conflicts and strategies of domination....an instrument of governance by one class against another."
By seeing the prison as a tool used perhaps in conflict, one can begin to understand the fact that crises within the prison system are inevitable in the primary form of conflict. The prison, in fact the whole penal system itself, is not shaped by patterns of criminality but by ruling class perceptions of what they see to be the 'problematic poor.' I would at this juncture venture to suggest that were the system to be based on crime patterns then there may not even be a crisis.
So let us continue to analyse the term crisis. It would seem that the public see a crisis of containment, for example through the media coverage on the escapes from Whitemoore dispersal unit in 1994. In the following year three lifers escaped from Parkhurst prison, which again received an unprecedented amount of media analysis. The Government responds to such issues by setting up investigations into the incidents, with the Learmont report being one such example. The media play a key role in facilitating a crisis, it is through them that the public become aware of problems, yet it is also through them that politicians such as Michael Howard claim that 'prison works' and that there is no crisis.
Indeed it is the media that adopts the approach of the first theory I will discuss, which acknowledges the fact that there is a crisis, but it is exclusively located within the prison system rather than the penal system as a whole. This is known as the orthodox account, which identifies several different, interwoven components that lead to a crisis mainly in the form of riots, demonstrations and unrest. The first relevant factor here (a symptom of the crisis) is that of the numbers crisis, whereby it is widely regarded that the number of people in prison is not only high, but is also rapidly increasing. Today the number of inmates in our prisons approximates to 65,000, yet only ten years earlier the population stood at 45,000. It must also be noted that since Mr Howard's prison works speech (1993) policies have been introduced to increase the number of people sent to prison, not necessarily because we have a greater crime rate than anywhere else in Europe, but because we send more people to prison for longer periods of time.
The second factor is that of overcrowding, which in turn contributes to bad conditions within the prison. It is not the fact that the system as a whole cannot deal with the number of inmates, but rather the prisoners themselves are not spread evenly through the system, most are concentrated in local prisons. For example in 1994 Leicester prison had the capacity to hold 181 prisoners, yet had an actual population of 348. Of the prisons studied a further nine were overcrowded by up to 50%, resulting in two inmates per cell instead of the usual one, raising issues of humanitarianism. The third factor is understaffing, which was initially raised through the production of a report in 1986, which revealed prison officers to be working excessive hours. The Government introduced a scheme to combat this problem, entitled 'Fresh Start' but it failed miserably. Further budget cuts on a yearly basis only added to this problem, and only caused staff unrest (fourth symptom) amongst the ranks. Both prison officers and the Home Office refused to back down over issues of pay and hours, with a prime example being protest action and the banning of overtime by officers in 1986. Indeed in 1989 events took a further turn for the worse when police officers were drafted in to Wandsworth prison to replace vacant prison officers who were on strike.
The fifth symptom of the crisis according to this approach is that of security, of which lapses in this area are pounced upon by the media and fed to the public through sensationalised stories. Amongst other things this achieves a greater public awareness in relation the a crisis of the prison system. Perhaps the two most publicised incidents occurred in Whitemoor and Parkhurst in the mid 1990s, both created by a catalogue of errors at the prison level. Despite the fact that escapes are neither many not increasing, the fact is that if procedures were followed properly there would be no escapes. The final ingredient of a crisis is that of what this approach pertains to be a 'toxic mix.' In this event, some people are more likely to create problems/disturbances than others, yet when resident in a confined space such as a prison, the potential for trouble dramatically increases. The mixing of Irish republican prisoners is a potential example in highlighting the dangers of a toxic mix, yet the extent to which they caused trouble as a unified mix is not actually known.
Thus far I have highlighted six symptoms/ingredients which can lead to rioting and disorder, and it is worth pointing out that since the mid 1980s there have been more events of riots and disorders in British prisons than in any other European countries. However it was April 1990 which has seen the worst ever spate of prison riots, including a 25 day siege at Strangeways. When looking at the bigger picture prison riots have rocketed over the past 25 years, with a total of 38 riots in 1985 to 146 in 1993. From the above approach one could argue with confidence that all of the ingredients for a crisis have, in one way or another, been evident within the British prison system. However there are criticisms of this approach, which include the fact that it is too simplistic and that in particular, the idea of a 'toxic mix' is innapropriate. One such critic suggests that most riots have occurred within local prisons, yet these do not have high levels of 'toxic mixes.' Whilst I would like to explore these criticisms further I must continue with the assumed direction of this essay due to restrictions imposed.
An alternative approach, which I have explored within a text written by Fitzgerald and Sim, is that of the Radical approach. As with the previous account they see the crisis to be located purely within the prison system, but identify a whole series of crises rather than just one (riots). The first of these two crises are that of containment and conditions, which have been discussed throughout this essay. The third is the crisis of authority. With the introduction of welfare reforms and the 1970s movement of prisoners rights, this seemed to act to underestimate the authority of the prison officers, which in turn would lead to staff unrest and dissolusionment. The fourth crisis identified was that of visibility, which is linked to the concept of secrecy that surrounds all of our prisons. According to Fitzgerald and Sim the existence of secrecy alone does not constitute a crisis. An example of this aspect of a crisis occurred at Wormwood Scrubs in 1979 when a demonstration was broken up by what can only be described as the equivalent to a SWAT team. The then Home Secretary stated that as a result there were no injuries, yet he later admitted that there were actually 54 injured, and that more alarmingly there was evidence that some prisoners had been assaulted. This issue is neatly summed up by Garland (1990)....
"If knowledge is power then there is a danger that the system will lose much of its power if it loses control about its information."
It could be argued that a greater public knowledge of what goes on inside the prisons could actually diffuse the problem of a crisis by pressuring the government into reforming the system.
The final crisis this approach identifies is the idea of legitimacy. In essence the whole of the penal system wields power over those within it, that is those who have broken the law, yet its moral justification for doing so has been strongly attacked. When used in the context of, say overcrowding or poor conditions within prisons, is it morally right for human beings to be subjected to this? The media again plays a pivotal role by appealing to the conscience of the public if it is required. However thus far it would seem that the majority of the public accept the morality of prisons as there have been no mass demonstrations. Whilst there are pressure groups such as NACRO, they have limited funds and only a relatively small following.
Okay so I have identified two different approaches which aim to highlight the existence of a prison crisis. However the evidence to strengthen each of the two theories is lacking. Following prison riots in the early 1990s the government commissioned Lord Woolf to investigate the disturbances, of which his report suggested that there were three requirements for stability...security, control and justice. The first two were referred to in the previous theories described, but the addition of justice added a new dimension to the argument. Justice relied on the obligation of the prison service to treat its inmates with 'humanity and fairness' and to assist in preparing them for release. For Woolf the problem lay in the inability of the prison service to do just that, and furthermore he highlighted the areas of grievance procedures and physical conditions as major areas of concern. Most of the prisoners he spoke to felt that what was happening to them was unjust, which would lead to contempt, unrest and riots.
In many ways I feel that this is a more developed approach to that of the orthodox theory, but at the same time a rejection of the positivistic methods adopted by them. Woolf recommended change in areas such as grievance procedures, as prisoners who could not air their views legitimately would do so by other means. His findings proved to be very influential, and has dramatically changed penal policies and procedures.
I would conclude by primarily asking the question as to whether the Woolf report was enough to halt the crisis. There have been many changes within the system since his findings were published, but only time will tell. The facts presented in this essay add strength to the argument that there has indeed been a crisis within the prison system, and the two approaches discussed in this essay both offer valid points in identifying the crisis. I would assert that the role of the prison and its success in terms of containing the criminals who pose a threat to our capitalist society will remain intact for many years to come.
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