Back from the Council of Europe conference
Every two years the Council of Europe organises a conference to bring together the heads of prison services in its 47 member nations. This year it was held jointly with the Scottish Prison Service in Edinburgh last week. I gave a speech about work in prisons during the session on long term prisoners along with Phil Wheatley, director general of NOMS, John Charles Navarro, head of the Catalan prison, and Andre Vallotton from Switzerland. There were 35 countries represented, from the Russian Federation to Andorra. These people are responsible for 2 million prisoners in countries from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Med to the Arctic. They all share one over-riding problem – overcrowding.Â
I can’t comment on the whole event, but I gleaned some interesting bits of information that I thought I might share.
We visited Polmont, the Scottish prison holding 16 to 21 year olds. I thought it was a pretty normal sort of establishment. We saw two or three boys learning brickwork. We saw the segregation unit that held 8 or 9 boys. We saw cells with bunk beds and two boys crammed to a tiny space. The delegation included people from Sweden, Germany and Eastern European countries, and they were quiet during the visit, not asking many questions. When we got back to the conference centre I asked why – they all said they were so shocked they could hardly speak. Why weren’t we ashamed of holding young boys in such conditions with nothing to do all day? I talked at length to the head of the German federal system; she said nothing like that existed in her country. Institutions kept people busy, with training and purposeful activities. Young boys would never be allowed to lie about all day as they do in Scotland and England. Most depressingly, the governor said that he had done a survey of his boys, and 90% had been in Polmont before.
Mike Ewart, head of the Scottish prisons, said in his speech that short sentences do harm to people and spend the national treasure, an interesting comment in the light of current economic challenges. He also said that the proliferation of “alternatives” to custody has contributed to rising prison populations across Europe rather than reduce custody numbers.
A final thought. I discovered that the government of Barbados has just invested in a huge new prison. Of course this is Her Majesty’s prison in Barbados as the queen is head of state. And they built it with a brand new working gallows.
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September 14, 2009
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Frances Crook · 
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Tags: International, Prisons · Posted in: International, Prisons
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Many thanks for your report from the Council of Europe conference. It’s great to hear about some of the talking points.
I wonder whether Mike Ewart explained *how* the proliferation of alternatives to custody has contributed to rising prison populations across Europe rather than reduce custody numbers?
If we know what caused the link might we be able to design the alternatives to custody more effectively?
I think he was trying to say that there is no link. That the proliferation of community sentences has no bearing on the use of prison. In addition, when the conditions are too onerous, people cannot comply and are then breached, thus ending up in prison. In the US, for example, more people are received into prison for breaching community sanctions or parole than are sentenced to custody. We are going the same way.
Interesting statistic about more people going to prison in the US for breaching community sanctions or parole than being sentenced to custody.
Does anyone know of any successful community sanctions which people do not try to dodge but which also really benefit the community?
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