RIOTERS “must bear the results” of their actions, the Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, said on Tuesday. But she also called for a “more creative” — and more practical — approach to criminal justice in the sunshine of the UK’s overcrowded prisons.
The conviction and sentencing of individuals involved in violent disorder in England and Northern Ireland earlier this month (News, 9 August) has put additional pressure on the prison system.
On Monday, the Prime Minister said that the disorder was “intolerable” and “clearly racist”. As of Wednesday, 139 people had been sent to prison and 13 to a young-offenders institution for his or her part within the unrest. Many more persons are on account of be sentenced over the approaching weeks.
Bishop Treweek, the Church’s lead bishop for prisons, told the Church Times that she was “hugely” disquieted by the sentencing of young people, and expressed concern about whether custodial sentences were helpful in the long run.
“I don’t know all the small print of the individuals who have been sent to prison, but why are we not making way more use of electronic tagging, giving people sentences locally that may address problems with anger or certain political opinions?
“Working with people locally in a holistic way . . . will construct far stronger stronger communities,” she said. She lsted the damage attributable to sending people to prison: separation of families, lack of income, and “extra trauma” to children whose parent is incarcerated.
Besides the social cost of imprisonment, there may be a financial cost, she said, of greater than £50,000 per yr. While it was crucial to “separate people from the general public in the event that they are genuinely dangerous”, there was an economic in addition to moral basis for alternatives to custodial sentences for some crimes, she said.
Emergency measures, often known as Operation Early Dawn, were activated this week, which permit defendants on remand to be held in police cells until prison places can be found. Announcing the introduction of the measures, the Prisons Minister, Lord Timpson, said: “We inherited a justice system in crisis and exposed to shocks. As a result, we now have been forced into making difficult but crucial decisions to maintain it operating.”
In the primary days of the brand new Government, the Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said that 5500 prisoners could be released early — after serving 40 per cent of their sentence — to ease overcrowding. She described the situation in prisons as a “ticking time bomb”.
The releases, limited to those that had committed certain offences only, are expected to happen in September and October.
Bishop Treweek welcomed the move, but reiterated calls made within the House of Lords for the prison system to be radically reconsidered (News, 26 July).
“I don’t think we’re grappling with the nub of the query, which is ‘how will we construct stronger communities, and what are prisons for?’” she said on Tuesday.
She is convening round-table meetings in Parliament to bring together “people of influence” throughout the criminal-justice system, to debate what systemic change might appear like.
At the local level, she said, churches can assist by getting involved in schemes reminiscent of the Welcome Directory and the Community Chaplaincy Association, which support those leaving prison.
Working in prisons, or for the probation service, was hardly ever spoken about as a vocation, she said; but “if we imagine that at the guts of the gospel is reconciliation and transformation, then surely we should always be encouraging Christians” to become involved with this work.
It was necessary for victims in addition to for offenders for the criminal-justice system to be effective in “transforming” people. If not, reoffending rates would remain high and victims would proceed to suffer.
