UK prison reform

Quote

"Vile deeds like poison weeds bloom well in prison air, it is only what is good in man, that wastes and withers there."  Oscar Wilde, from The Ballad of Reading Gaol 

News

This week Britain's prime minister backed justice secretary Ken Clarke's proposal to reduce the number of shorter prison sentences in exchange for community punishments and rehabilitation measures. 

Community punishments that involve the local population in deciding on what offenders should do is a step in the right direction, because a relational approach to justice starts with the premise that every crime represents a breakdown of relationship between the offender and victim, and between the offender and the community. 

Custodial sentences exacerbate relational breakdown as prisoners are separated from their partners and children, often leading to family breakdown, and are kept in an environment of abuse and violence.  On release they find it very hard to reintegrate into the community they come from, and alienation from family and community is more likely to drive them back to offending.  

The more the criminal justice system considers the relational infrastructure around prisoners, seeking to strengthen not erode it, the more effective it might become in reducing the reoffending rate (notwithstanding the role of drug addiction). 

Read on...

This short video is a remarkable story of the transforming impact of a relational approach to criminal justice, as told by a hardened criminal and one of his victims of burglary and assault.  It's well worth the 10 minutes it takes to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YYZ1bGo8wc

Walk the talk

For parents: time out can help a child calm down, but if you punish your children by sending them to their rooms in "solitary confinement", then make sure to be deliberate about welcoming the child back afterwards, once appropriate apologies have been made, so that normal family relations can be restored.

The last word

From the Bible, Matthew 5 v. 25: "Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison."