How politicians' obsession with being 'tough on crime' only makes things worse
Populist attitudes to prison sentences have created a false dichotomy between being ‘tough’ and ‘soft’ on crime
I often begin my day shouting at the radio. On one recent occasion, it was in agreement, but also in frustration at hearing what I, and so many others, have been saying for years getting another outing – while fearing that it will be ignored once again.
This week the Independent Sentencing Review, led by former Conservative Lord Chancellor David Gauke, called out successive governments’ “bidding war” on lengthening sentences as a driver of the bloated prison population in England and Wales. Prison policy in recent decades has been “inconsistent, ill-considered and knee-jerk” and led by the need to look “tough on crime”.
With already one of the highest prison population rates in Western Europe, England and Wales could run out of prison space again by spring 2026 without “radical action”, Gauke warned. There’s little I would disagree with in the report and much we should take heed of here in Scotland too.
Emergency, early release schemes
Prison is expensive, terrible at reducing reoffending and the system as a whole doesn’t serve victims of crime well. As Gauke said, “prison is not the only form of punishment”. Yet we have packed our prisons until they’re bursting at the seams on both sides of the Border, prompting emergency, early release schemes to ease the pressure – a short-term measure at best.
I won’t run over everything in the review – you can find it online – and while I welcome the content, it’s faintly depressing to hear the same facts and figures, the same practical, logical arguments that we’ve all been making for many, many years.
Depressing because what does it take to prompt “radical action”? And while I’m here – is it really radical to prioritise evidence-based solutions – including proper investment (financial, political and cultural) into community-first options – that reduce re-offending, cost less and free up prison space for those who need to be there?
The weaponisation of justice policy isn’t new and the impact of it is devastating. Populism is on the rise, and it cows politicians and traps governments in the false dichotomy of tough or soft justice. It feeds off the idea that people can’t change and champions prisons as the only and ultimate form of justice – while ignoring that most people who enter it, also need to exit it.
It ignores evidence and experts, sidelines victims, and instead sells an empty revenge narrative based on nothing more than a gut feeling about what ‘the public wants’.
Prison doesn’t work
In recent years, we’ve been warned about the dangers of mis- and disinformation. To be careful about content online, to fact-check carefully before sharing untrue or malevolent material. And yet, for the past 30 years, the public and political rhetoric around our justice system has been brazenly decoupled from the facts.
‘Prison Works’, a political slogan from the early 90s, still haunts the landscape, despite being completely, irrefutably, false. So what next? Gauke recognised the toughest role is to convince the public and others on the evidence.
I retain faith in what I know is right and the good, hard-working people around me will continue, like the broken record I sometimes feel like, to say it. And I’ll continue to hope for non-partisan political leadership and bravery to deliver a justice system that keeps us all safe.
Karyn McCluskey is chief executive of Community Justice Scotland