The National Chairman

May 2008

ZERO TOLERANCE

The theme of our 2008 Annual Conference to be held at Portsmouth will be “Zero Tolerance”. The POA has campaigned for Zero Tolerance in prisons for many years.

The recent announcement by the Rt. Hon. Jack Straw that the Prison Service was to take up our call for Zero Tolerance is welcomed. Violence and drug abuse is the scourge of our modern society. Politicians of all Parties fail to address the proper use of prisons as a deterrent to crime.

It is left to Lord Phillips, the Lord Chief Justice, and the most senior judge in England to issue warnings of the erosion that early release is causing to the Criminal Justice System.

16,000 prisoners have been released early from jail since last June. Lord Phillips has called for a new structure that will make it easier for the public to understand how long inmates are likely to spend in jail. Lord Phillips is quoted as saying “I think it is still difficult for the public to understand sentencing as a whole”. He went on to say “I think it would be very much better if one had a clear sentencing structure, where if you imposed a sentence you could see how long that individual might spend in prison and when they would be eligible for parole”.

The Lord Chief Justice went on to say he does not favour fixed sentences where inmates would find out in advance how long they must serve behind bars. There must be the flexibility to give a prisoner the incentive for good behaviour and to allow parole.

The crisis we now see in sentencing can be clearly laid at the door of New Labour, with their misguided belief that new prisons should only be built and run in the private sector. This has caused an ever increasing crisis in the Public Sector Prison Service, so leading to the judiciary being unable to carry forward and protect the public in a correct fashion. The levels of early release we have seen since last June are due to years of under investment by New Labour in our over crowded prisons. Whilst the rhetoric coming from both New Labour and the Tories is one to be tougher on crime, the reality is we have a sentencing policy that is so convoluted that we find we have the Lord Chief Justice having to speak out. The Government should abandon its currents plans of budgetary cuts inside Public Sector Prisons. Invest correctly in both staff and fabric so that we can carry out our core task to protect the public and address inmates re-offending.

Whilst the Ministry of Justice continues to spend what seems to be the majority of its time attacking this trade union through the Courts and Parliaments legislative systems the public are suffering. We should have Zero Tolerance to crime not what we are seeing, a sentencing policy geared to the economics that say we want to imprison more, but only if it is on the cheap and totally ignore the sentences issued by free and independent judiciary. Prison staff should not just be used as door keepers to a criminal fraternity that know that the sentences issued to them by the Courts will no way reflect the sentence they will serve. We should see a clearly defined new structure on sentencing as recommended by the Lord Chief Justice. Prisons must be correctly resourced and not be at the end of the treasury food chain. Until we see correctly resourced prisons we will see a continuation of the revolving door sentencing policy that endangers the public and leaves prisons to be the butt of the media campaign that we cannot address offending behaviour. The current policy being enacted by the Government is one of prisons being no more than short stay holding areas. Politicians of all Parties should be brave enough to set out clearly what they want from our prison system, so all parties; the judiciary, the public, the offender and most of all staff, know what they are expected to deliver. For Zero Tolerance to mean anything we must remove the smoke and mirrors attitude to sentencing.

Colin Moses
National Chairman

ARCHIVE:

APRIL 2008: The National Chairman

FEBRUARY 2008: The National Chairman

DECEMBER 2007: The National Chairman

OCTOBER 2007: The National Chairman

AUGUST 2007: The National Chairman

JUNE 2007: The National Chairman

MAY 2007: The National Chairman

APRIL 2007: The National Chairman

FEBRUARY 2007: The National Chairman

DECEMBER 2006: The National Chairman