by Sarah Jackson

Created on: May 18, 2008   Last Updated: September 17, 2010

Prisons in the UK are extremely overcrowded, to the point where violent criminals are being sent to open-prisons or being given some form of early release as there are simply not enough beds.

Secure or closed prisons are supposed to be for high risk prisoners but more and more of these offenders are being shipped out to open or semi-open prisons. When in these open or semi-open establishments, prisoners have the opportunity to apply for home-leaves, town visits, out-work and outside college. There have been many reports of escaped high-risk prisoners who have simply walked out of open prisons, so many that the BBC held an investigation into it and aired a documentary which was played in April 2008.

In addition to this obviously dangerous situation, more and more men and women are being convicted and given custodial sentences. Many prisoners in prison at present are serial offenders who keep getting out and going on to commit further crime. The only answer is to focus on rehabilitation whilst in prison, so offenders have help and support whilst outside which will encourage them to want to live a better life. Another reason why some prisoners keep committing crime is because some people actually grow to like life on the inside and prefer it to the stresses of living on their own. This is more apparent in young prisoners, who are home-less or in care. The only way to tackle these problems are to help offenders when they are released instead of wrapping them in cotton wool whilst they are inside.

Some prisoners are less dangerous than others and some have committed worse crimes than others. So why should someone who has committed a driving offense be put in the same secure establishment as a murder? The whole system needs to be re-evaluated as there are many people who are sent to prison who are not a danger to the public and who perhaps simply made a mistake. These people do not deserve to be put in prison and there should be some other forms of punishment available.

Many prisoners who would not have been accepted for porole or HDC (tag) are now being accepted , just to try and make some room for other prisoners. This is very dangerous and a great example of how the criminal justice system is 'protecting' the society.

I don't agree that the answer is to build more prisons, especially those 'Titan-prisons' that are said to be built soon. These will only keep filling up as long as the courts keep sending people down for minor offenses. The only way to sort out the overcrowding issue, is to focus on the rehabilitation of prisoners and keep prisons just for violent offenders who are a true danger to the public.

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