Urgent call for prison reform

Catholic bishops have called for urgent political action to reform the prison system in a new report that draws on the expertise of prison chaplains and charities.

“The Right Road”, a paper by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales that builds upon the vision explored in its 12-year-old document, “A Place of Redemption”, says that the Government must prioritise rehabilitation, social reintegration and positive opportunities for prisoners.

“We urge the Government to be bold in making this a reality,” it reads. “It is clear that the biggest threat to reform is under-resourcing of the system, particularly the chronically low staffing levels that impact upon almost every aspect of prison life.”

Concern has been growing over the increasing levels of violence against inmates and guards after latest figures showed the overall number of assaults rose by a third to 23,775 in the year to June 2016, and the paper’s publication coincides with a riot at Bedford Prison and an escape by two prisoners from Pentonville. The Secretary of State for Justice, Liz Truss, presented her Prison Safety and Reform White Paper this week in which she recommended recruiting 2,500 new prison officers.

Safety, education, family contact and pastoral care were all at risk due to underfunding, the bishops’ report warned. Giving priority to humane environments that foster rehabilitation would bring down levels of reoffending.

The document, launched last week at a parliamentary reception for Csan, the Church’s social action network, criticised the “undignified and unacceptable” conditions some prisoners lived in.
It criticised a decline in access to Release on Temporary Licence schemes, which it said were pivotal for rehabilitation as they allowed offenders to organise jobs and housing ahead of their release. It also called on the Government to address barriers to accessing chaplaincy services.

The release of the report came as Pope Francis invited 1,000 convicted criminals to Mass at the Vatican last weekend and called for clemency for prisoners in the Year of Mercy. The Pope urged inmates not to lose hope in God’s mercy, saying all people “have made mistakes”.

“A certain hypocrisy can lead to people considering you only as wrongdoers, for whom prison is the sole answer,” Francis said in his homily. “I want to tell you, every time I visit a prison I ask myself: ‘Why them and not me?’ We can all of us make mistakes.”