Blog: PRT’s approach to influencing policy
In this blog, Mark Day, PRT’s Head of Policy and Communications outlines how we seek to have an impact on criminal justice policy.
How does PRT achieve change? It is a question we are frequently asked by people in prison. Rightly, prisoners want to know that an organisation established over 40 years ago to inform and influence debate on prison conditions and the treatment of prisoners is doing what it was set up to do.
The truth is, however, that the work of influencing prison policy in a positive direction is far from straightforward.
As a small independent UK charity which does not seek nor accept government funding, PRT has no formal powers to dictate what government policy should be.
Our influence as a charity is less direct: it is founded on our reputation with policymakers and our willingness to engage constructively with them (as well as telling them hard truths when we feel policy is going in the wrong direction). While maintaining our independence, we often work alongside the prison service and have close links with government departments including the Ministry of Justice, Treasury, Home Office, Cabinet Office, Department of Health and Department for Education.
A major challenge for a small organisation working in criminal justice is to determine its priorities, while retaining some capacity to seize opportunities and respond to events. PRT’s strategic plan, which is reviewed every five years in consultation with our stakeholders including people in prison, sets out our key aims and objectives. Our current priorities include ending the indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection (IPP); ensuring a fair and effective parole system; improving the way of life for the longest serving prisoners, for older prisoners, and for those in solitary; and improving access to in cell technology and the internet.
The strategic plan also sets out PRT’s core values and methods of working. One of these core values is listening to and providing a voice for prisoners and their families, and promoting their role in making change happen. This value is embedded in our advocacy work through the contribution of the Prisoner Policy Network (PPN) and Building Futures Network (BFN).
PRT’s prisoner engagement work is an increasingly important part of how PRT goes about influencing policy.
This can be seen in the contribution of PPN members to the development of the government’s prison leavers programme; the influence of PRT’s series of CAPPTIVE briefings on the development of HMPPS’ future regime design; and the importance of evidence received from prisoners and their families, including members of the PPN and BFN, in informing the findings and recommendations of influential select committee reports, such as the education committee inquiry on prisoner education and the justice committee inquiry on IPPs.
PRT’s prisoner engagement work runs alongside, and is complementary to, our traditional advocacy activity. This work includes responding to government and other statutory consultations; providing oral and written evidence to Parliamentary select committees; publishing briefing papers for Parliamentary debates; drafting amendments to legislation and Parliamentary questions; holding meetings with ministers, officials, MPs and members of the House of Lords; working with the media to highlight concerns; and working in coalition with other organisations.
Another question we are often asked is how successful PRT has been in influencing justice policy. In many respects, PRT’s goal of a more just, humane and effective prison system remains as distant as ever. After decades of growth in the prison population, we should never underestimate the barriers that exist to a more progressive penal policy in the UK; or overestimate our capacity as a small charity to affect a fundamental change in political direction.
Ultimately, we cannot prevent a government with an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons from forcing through punitive measures if it is determined to do so.
Sometimes, we can do little more than highlight the impact of a policy we had no forewarning or knowledge of, such as the recent changes in the criteria for transfer to open conditions. By continuing to plug away at the detail of the policy and draw out its implications, we hope, in time, more sensible heads may instigate a quiet reversal of approach.
But equally, we should not undervalue the importance of an independent advocacy charity able to hold ministers and officials accountable for the impact of their policies. While we cannot afford to be complacent, we can take quiet satisfaction from gains our work, alongside others, have contributed to. These include the government’s decision to legislate to automate the licence review process for people serving IPP sentence; slow but steady progress towards implementing the government’s female offenders strategy; and the roll out of liaison and diversion services in police stations and courts.
Change takes time, but it does happen. We owe it to prisoners and their families to keep going.
Mark Day
Head of Policy and Communications
