What we think
SENDING offenders to prison isn't always the best way of dealing with crime. While it satisfies a primordial desire for retribution or a requirement to make the punishment fit the crime, all too often custodial sentences are a blunt instrument. As Baroness Stern pointed out yesterday at the conclusion of the Alternatives To Prison conference, organised by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the British-Irish think-tank Encounter, it makes no sense at all to pass the same custodial sentence on a fire-raiser with an alcohol problem and a vicious murderer without a conscience.
Prison is often a knee-jerk reaction. Worse, it is a breeding ground for criminality where drugs are freely available, and some institutions are no longer fit for purpose. Far more challenging is the need to discover the root causes of crime and to find solutions to them.
The findings from the conference were thought-provoking and surprisingly easy to grasp. Namely, that crime is caused by a variety of factors such as social dislocation, lack of education, poor health facilities, breakdowns in family life and alcohol and drug abuse, all of which lead to a collapse of self-respect and a resulting failure to cope with life's basic needs.
This is especially true of young people who drift into crime. One speaker, Camila Batmanghelidjh, spoke of revolutionary work being done by Kids Company in London. The job of weaning them off crime and giving them back self-respect is expensive, requires one-to-one care and isn't always popular with the public, but it can work.
One reason why our prisons are so full is that custodial sentencing is regarded as the one-size-fits-all option, with the result that their populations are out of sight and out of mind.
Scotland has an enviable record in offering community disposals for young offenders, but more needs to be done. While many young people have benefited from the new community justice system, there are still as many young offenders in prisons as ever before. There is still no replacement for the groundbreaking Airborne Initiative, which offered a viable alternative to custodial sentencing for high-tariff young male offenders at risk of continuing to be dangerous offenders. Despite promises made over two years ago, the Executive has failed disgracefully to come up with new proposals, thus leaving a gap in the criminal justice system.
The difficulty with reforming the system is that it is not a vote-winner. But as the Alternatives To Prison conference demonstrated, change is possible if all the relevant agencies combine to address these demanding issues. Sending offenders to prison is the easy option. It's much harder to find ways of giving them an alternative which will help to keep them out of trouble.
