A NEW report on prisons and society was commended within the House of Lords by the Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, last week.
Bishop Treweek, the Church of England’s Bishop for Prisons, had given evidence to the committee accountable for the report, Better Prisons: Less crime. She would, she said, “proceed to bang the drum for reform. Better prisons will play a significant role, but they will not be the tip point or the whole answer to reducing reoffending.”
She gave a warning: “Rehabilitation implies that folks were once at an appropriate place in life to which they may be rehabilitated, whereas, for the vast majority of people in prison, this was never true in the primary place.”
The Bishop spoke of her contribution to the Sentencing Bill (News, 21 November 2025) and “the breadth of support for my amendment on the aim of prisons. This emerged from some work with quite a lot of people across the criminal-justice sector, as a part of a round table which I actually have been convening in Westminster. . . [But] we’d like this legislative definition of the aim of imprisonment. Would the Minister comply with meet with me to debate introducing such a definition?”
Recruitment and culture were one other issue, she said. “I proceed to be astounded that prison governors are unable to appoint their very own staff. This is out of sync with many of the public sector.”
She was concerned that “the recent policing White Paper . . . shockingly, in 103 pages . . . doesn’t mention prison once. Where is the joined-up pondering?
“This leads me finally back to culture. Good leadership inside a jail builds culture and hope. If we wish safer communities, we must create safer, more humane prisons. The culture contained in the prison will translate to the culture outside the prison.”
The debate was introduced by Lord Foster of Bath, who chairs the Justice and Home Affairs Committee. He quoted from the report: “The prison system is ‘operating either in or on the verge of crisis more often than not’, it’s ‘disheartening and saddening’, and worrying to the intense,” he said.
He hoped that “in time” the Justice department would put “its energies into ensuring the wide-scale provision of measures to scale back reoffending. Only then can we truly have higher prisons and fewer crime.”
Baroness Prashar, who was a member of the Select Committee accountable for the report, reiterated: “Our prisons are in a state of crisis, and there may be urgent need for a strategic and focused reform of the system if we wish to scale back reoffending and protect the general public.”
A former chair of the Parole Board of England and Wales, she was keen to see a discount within the prison population — “essential” — and a clearer purpose for prisons, including higher educational opportunities “for prisoners to learn skills which equip them to guide a purposeful life when released”.
The Revd Lord Griffiths of Burry Port sounded an institutional note. “Why, after I was working 30 years ago because the President of the Methodist Church in Britain, did I select prisons to be one in all my key subjects?” He lamented an absence of progress. “It is similar stuff, for workers, governors, conditions inside prison, pay, and pensions. . . Here we’re, 30 years later, debating the selfsame issues.”
