Prison Flashcards
Access to drugs
According to statistics given in response to a parliamentary question, there were almost 4,500 instances of substances being taken from inmates in 2013/14
The issue of safety in prison by the Prison Reform Trust
As the Prison Reform Trust reinforces, ‘prison is failing to meet people’s most basic need – safety.’
The number of Open prisons and its implication
There are only 15 open prisons in the UK, which implies that prison focuses more on punishment than rehabilitation.
Liz Truss’s action in tackling drugs in prison
Elizabeth Truss pledges to require prisoners to be tested for drug use on entry and exit from prison, in order to combat the widespread drug abuses in prison, which is essentially exacerbated reoffending rates and violence in prisons.
What sort of people normally go to prison?
Prisoners are some of society’s most marginalised and vulnerable people. Many of them were let down by the education system early in the stage as children.
Reoffending rate for short sentences
58% of prisoners on short sentences reoffend within a year of leaving jail.
The rate of reoffending
One in every two criminals leaving prison will commit another crime within one year of walking out the prison gates.
The soft condition in prison
• Point for failed to deter
Inmates have admitted conditions in some prisons are like those at holiday camps, with satellite television and video game consoles on offer as well as free bed and board
The heavy implication of incarceration
imprisonment breaks up families and costs offenders their jobs and often their homes by the time they finish to serve their sentence.
The importance of family support in the process of rehabilitation
40% of prisoners stated that support from their family would help them stop reoffending in the future. This is because it is something that helps prisoners to keep links with normal life while they are inside
Assaults on prison staff
In the year to June, assaults on staff jumped by 43% to 5954 with 697 of these recorded as serious.
Failure in protection
• G4S incident
In 2013, G4S and a rival security firm, Serco, overcharged the government by tens of millions for some non-existent electronic tags, which means that the public are not essentially subject to protection.
Turss’s action in tackling understaffing
• More money
Truss pledges to grant more than £100m annually to strengthen the frontline with 2,500 more prison officers in the hope that it would be able to combat drug abuse, gang violence and the rising attacks on staff and prisoners.
What is the consequence of lack of staff
Lack of staff meant that prisoners would have to stay in their cells for 23 hours, rather than having lessons or learning vocational skills under supervision.
Failure of rehabilitation programmes
Rehabilitation programmes only reduces the reoffending rate to 41%.
The education level of prisoners
There is only 53 per cent of the prison population have any qualifications, compared to 85 per cent of the working-age population
Why is rehabilitation important?
With the right rehabilitation and support, they can go and make a positive contribution to society.
Ex-offender support
• The Clink
The Clink, a prison-based restaurant chain, allows inmates to train for a City & Guilds qualification in food preparation and St Giles Trust runs a peer mentoring employability programme for ex-offenders.
Success of rehabilitation
• Vocational training
vocational training effectively prepares prisoners to re-enter society productively.
Incident that showed prison failed to protect the public
There were Inmates from Pentonville prison escaping and being murdered in November 2016.
What is the prison population?
The rise of prison population is at a record of 85,000.
Truss’s measure to tackle the lack of prison places
There are plans to open five new “community prisons” for women as part of a £1.3bn programme to provide 10,000 modern prison places by 2020.
Suicides rates in prison
• Women
A total of 19 women have died in prison so far in 2016, at least eight of those deaths were self-inflicted.
The financial implication of suicides rates in prison
As a consequence, the financial cost to taxpayer could be as much as £300 million a year.
