22 August 2003
The head of the Prison Service has questioned Home Secretary David Blunkett's policy of providing more jail places.
In a television interview on August 17, Phil Wheatley, director general of the prison service, stressed: 'We're not the answer to crime.'
Asked about Blunkett's policy of increasing the number of prison places even while crime levels fall, Wheatley replied: 'We are one of the ways that the country deals with crime… people [who] have been victims think sometimes for serious offences that nothing other than prison would do.
'But it's important we don't overuse it. It's expensive, it is disruptive to the loved ones of those who come inside, often entirely innocent families and children who find that their whole life has to change as a result. It's a difficult experience to get through. It shouldn't be lightly used.'
Wheatley also appeared to suggest that the number of suicides in prisons was partly the result of overcrowding. 'It's just the sheer pressure of numbers, which means that we're moving people into a local prison from the courts and then moving them out very quickly,' he said.
So many people entered prison that staff did not have enough time to understand their individual needs. Wheatley added: 'Most of the suicide problems do relate to that period immediately after coming into prison.'
A Home Office spokesman said that dangerous, violent and persistent offenders should be jailed, although sentencing was a matter for the courts.
He added: 'For other offenders, consideration should be given to the greater use of fines, community sentences, treatment orders and curfews.'
Wheatley's comments were made the day after a report from the Prison Reform Trust revealed what it said were record levels of suicides and overcrowding in jails. The trust said the service had met only eight of its 19 key performance indicators.
It found that there were a record 105 suicides in 2002/03, and that the overcrowding rate was 20.4%, or 14,800 prisoners, against an 18% target.
Report author Enver Solomon said: 'This report reveals a Prison Service whose performance is being severely hampered by a record prison population. It is truly shocking that so many people have killed themselves in prison.
'The only way to improve these jails is immediately to reduce their populations.'
PFaug2003
