Overcrowded jails a ‘crime’

The Church of England will be neither quiet nor docile in its critique of the criminal justice system. That was the hard-hitting view of the Rt Rev Peter Selby, as the Government’s new Ministry of Justice began work in May, and Bishop Peter prepares to step down as Bishop to Her Majesty’s Prisons. “It’s important the Church goes on saying things that aren’t necessarily popular,” he said, “even if we are swimming against the tide”.

Bishop Peter’s comments follow February’s General Synod motion criticising the Government’s criminal justice policy for its record on prison overcrowding, its treatment of women, young people, those with mental illnesses and members of black and minority ethnic groups.

The Synod debate was a response to Taking Responsibility for Crime, a major report commissioned by the Church of England, which challenged “a wasteful and self-defeating use of prison, in favour of measures which hold criminals to account but give opportunity for lasting change”.

Bishop Peter, who calls himself a “friendly critic”, expressed serious concern “about a penal policy that just seems to be to be running in two different directions at once. Everybody agrees that, in order to do proper rehabilitation, we need to get down the numbers in jail but then politicians – faced with the voting public – say ‘We’re going to be tough’.” It’s an approach which is exacerbated as elections approach when “you end up in an auction”, with opposing sides saying, “We can lock up more people than you can”.

Instead he argues, “custody should be abnormal, something we do when we absolutely have to”. General Synod called on the Government “to promote effective non-custodial sanctions and the practice of restorative justice”. Bishop Peter believes this is a practical as well as a theological solution: “The alternative Christian principles of restorative justice are labour intensive, but not more so than running prisons and the Church must make that plain.”

Christians don’t need to resort to the rhetoric of toughness but must show that that “compassion is tough as well.”

The Revd Christopher Jones, one of the authors of Taking Responsibility for Crime, pointed out that both the report and the Synod motion underlined the chronic re-offending of young people, demanding support for “the many schemes that churches are involved in which try and turn young people’s lives around”.

Both he and Bishop Peter have commended What can I do?, a booklet produced by the Churches’ Criminal Justice Forum and the Prison Advice and Care Trust offering practical guidance for Christians in getting involved in helping people in the criminal justice system. Several thousand copies have been distributed. “People found them so helpful that the Home Office paid for a second edition,” said Christopher Jones.

In the end it might be as simple making someone a cup of tea, said Bishop Peter, emphasising the valuable work Christians are already doing. “The church provides more voluntary help of this kind to people than any other area of civil society,” He said. “If you’ve travelled 200 miles on bus and train with two fractious kids for a short, supervised and rather tetchy visit with a partner, actually to have someone make you a cup of tea and give you a smile can make the day a bit different.”

Bishop Peter will be succeeded by the Rt Revd James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, as Bishop to Her Majesty’s Prisons in September 2007.

 ‘What can I do?’ can be downloaded at www.ccjf.org/whatcanido/download.html