Prison Violence: “A Growing Concern”?
by paulabowles
The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Dame Anne Owers has recently expressed concern at the escalation of prison violence in England and Wales. While, she has acknowledged that, thus far the violence has been effectively contained, it would seem that this may struggle to continue. In her Annual Report she identifies many areas of concern, but once more the main focus appears to be on overcrowding.
In spite of some positive areas—particularly in relation to the help provided to prisoners upon release—Anne Owers articulates considerable anxiety at the current state of British prisons. Such a viewpoint is shared by Juliet Lyon (Prison Reform Trust) who also pinpoints the increasing prison population, as well as major concerns with the Government’s proposal to build super-sized ‘Titan jails’ to deal with the problem.
Since the creation of the first prisons we have seen a continuing debate over the purpose of prison. Questions of rehabilitation, incapacitation and recidivism crop up again and again. It would appear that even today we are no closer to answering Robert Martinson’s question ‘What Works?’ Until a satisfactory conclusion is reached it is unlikely that any real progress can be achieved.
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This is a very interesting topic. I wonder what the desired outcome is for prison reformers? Are prison reformers thinking critically about how society defines “crime”?
Keri
It seems likely that news stories such as this will continually crop up. Until we reach some sort of consensus as to what purpose prison serves within society, the dichotomy between care and control will continue confuse the situation. You would think that after all this time, we would have a better understanding of both crime and punishment, but alas this still appears very far off.
Paula