Prisons That Work – Sadiq Khan outlines Labour’s plan ahead of election

Keynote speech by Sadiq Khan, Shadow Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

Nelson Mandela once said “no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails”
Over the three and a half years in this job, I’ve visited a lot of jails. Big ones, small ones, women’s jails, young offender institutions, secure children’s homes and training centres.

New ones, Victorian ones. Public, private. Good, failing. I’ve seen the full spectrum. Only now can I appreciate Mandela’s words. And these visits have helped shape my thinking, culminating in today’s speech, “Prisons That Work”

It’s an undeniable fact that we live in a society where people do bad things. Sometimes so bad that being sent to prison is the only option. However prison should be a last resort, reserved for serious, violent and persistent offenders. And it’s an undeniable fact that most of those in jail today won’t be in for ever 90% of those inside will be free a decade from now, having done their time.

So when we say we want prisons that work, we know that can’t mean jails that are simply huge warehouses, squashing in ever more prisoners, who are doomed to idle away their days, all too ready to slip back into a life of crime when they’re released. That means more victims, more human misery and a massive waste of talent.

And then there’s the cost. According to the National Audit Office, reoffending costs us £13 billion a year. That’s almost double the Ministry of Justice’s budget. Tackling reoffending – by making prisons work – would save money and make us all safer as a result. With budgets under pressure, we have to do everything we can do reduce reoffending.

During Labour’s 13 years in Government crime fell by 43%. But by the end of our time in office, there were 85,000 people behind bars – 25,000 more than in 1997. I don’t believe there is a simple, perfect correlation between the rise in prison numbers and the fall of crime. It’s far more complicated.

Undoubtedly, sending to prison more bad people for longer did help bring down crime rates. But, although they nudged downwards in our final years, we didn’t do enough to bring down rates of reoffending. We laid the groundwork for reductions in reoffending with Bradley, Corston, the Youth Justice Board and the intensive alternative to custody pilots. We recognised that offenders are not one uniform group. There are distinct groups within it, each with differing characteristics, and each requiring a different approach. We started to do the necessary work to address it, particularly in our latter years in Government.

And for a while, I thought the Tories got it too. Like many, I was sympathetic to their talk of a rehabilitation revolution. But now I realise it was nothing more than a sham. That it was all part and parcel of their hug a hoodie, hug a husky masquerade. That it was just an exercise in spin, to make the nasty party seem less nasty. And to make the voters think they had changed.

Many of you will recall “Prisons with a Purpose”, their 2008 pamphlet. I’ll hold up my hands – there’s plenty in it I agree with. Their calls for small, local prisons. And their focus on rehabilitation and work in prisons.

In his foreword, David Cameron described the proposals as “a new generation of prisons and a new model of prison management. It is designed to deliver justice for victims and to ensure that prisoners make restitution to society for their crimes, and leave prison with better skills and prospects than they had when they entered”. Who could disagree?

And this carried on in their early months in Government. Some of you may remember my warm words in the House of Commons when Ken Clarke unveiled his Green Paper Breaking the Cycle in December 2010 – I certainly do. But it unravelled.

The Tories reverted to type. Even more so when Ken Clarke was unceremoniously dumped for Chris Grayling – a classic Tory lurch to the right. I’ve not heard the words rehabilitation revolution leave Chris Grayling’s lips. And, as the Chief Inspector picked up in his most recent annual report, there’s no longer any mention of working prisons.

Nick Hardwick said “Only a few years ago we heard a lot about ‘working prisons’ and making prisons places of productive activity. More recently there has been a deafening silence on this topic and prisons might be excused if they believe this is no longer a priority”.

Let’s go through their record. Remember in opposition Tory criticisms of Titan prisons? David Cameron declaring “the idea that big is beautiful with prisons is wrong”. I agree – big, supermax style prisons aren’t the answer. We don’t want giant warehouses. Massive stadium-like jails with thousands and thousands of criminals lumped in together. Difficult to control and keep order, let alone doing anything like rehabilitation.

But what’s happened now? Suddenly, they’ve embraced Titan prisons. Wrexham, and maybe Feltham down the line, will get two enormous prisons of over 2,500 prisoners. And let’s not forget about the 400 place, £85million Secure College in the East Midlands – you could call it a teenage Titan. What a reversal!

They said smaller well performing prisons were their model. But in government they’ve closed them down. At the end of last year, the National Audit Office said the Government had “traded good quality and performance for greater savings. For example, it closed some high-performing prisons before new prisons were performing well”.

In February 2013, Chris Grayling held up G4S run Oakwood Prison as his blueprint for the rest of the prison system. Just weeks later a damning inspection revealed drugs easier to obtain than soap. I’ve been to Oakwood Prison. Believe me, it’s a model of how not to run the rest of the prison system!

We were told that they’d put prisoners time to good use on education, training and work
But the reality is it isn’t happening. And to hide their shame they’ve even given up collecting data on the amount of purposeful activity undertaken by prisoners.

Things are in a bad shape. Overcrowding is up. Prisons are regularly locked out. 608 incidents of police cells used for prisoners over a recent four-month period. Last Friday, just 568 places left in the whole system. Riot Squad called out 72% more times than in 2010. Deaths in custody highest for a decade with four people a week dying in 2013. A string of shocking prison inspection reports – Winchester, Oakwood, Pentonville, Brixton, Bristol, Thameside, Risley. Nick Hardwick, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, warning last October that “the cracks are beginning to show”.

And where’s the Government’s focus been during that time? It’s been on gimmicks. Small, tabloid-friendly announcements that play to the gallery, giving the impression they’re doing something when really they aren’t. Such as banning the sending of books to prisoners. A policy so plainly ridiculous it has come in for huge criticism from leading authors as well as from some of Grayling’s own MPs!

Under a Labour Government ministers won’t put obstacles in the way of prisoners reading books. We will end the ban on books. And we will review the Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme to make sure it is not undermining efforts at rehabilitation.

The Government’s rehabilitation agenda all but ignores prisons. Instead, the Government have put all their eggs in the basket of privatising probation. But these plans are uncosted, untested and untried, and risk public safety. Private companies with no record of working in this area given responsibility for supervising serious and violent offenders in the community.

While, on the other hand, they’ve allowed prisons to become more squalid, overcrowded and violent – miles away from what we need to rehabilitate criminals. It’s almost as if they’ve given up on doing anything meaningful in prisons, in the hope that a brave, new world of privatised probation will iron out the deep creases of those released from jail.

Should I have the privilege of being Justice Secretary in 2015, there won’t be a great inheritance. Money will be very tight for some time to come. That’s why Labour has committed to a zero-based spending review.

But we’ll also receive a hospital pass in many other ways. Prisons more overcrowded and violent. A looming crunch on prison capacity. High profile projects this Government has committed the next government to fund, including Wrexham and Feltham prisons and the new Secure College. A reckless, half-baked probation privatisation. The challenge will be the greatest for some while, but with very little room for manoeuvre.

That’s why I’m determined Labour will work from first principles. We’ll invest to prevent crime in the first place – housing, education, Sure Start. And to stop offenders going on to commit any more offences.

Prisons based on collaboration, with public private and voluntary groups all pulling in the same direction to effectively punish and reform offenders. With prisoners contributing back to society, through restorative justice and community payback, reparation for the harm done through their crimes.

To deliver on this, we’ll squeeze every last drop out of the taxpayers’ spend. We’ll be clear what we expect of sentencing, what the guilty will do as part of their punishment, and what will be done to stop criminals reoffending.

We’ll look again at effective Intensive Alternatives to Custody, not consign them to the waste bin like the current government.

We’ll build on the success of diversion – taking the fantastic work of the YJB and, if budgets allow, look to expand its remit to older age groups. Identifying other key groups in the system, such as women. And deliver the National Strategy for Muslims in our prisons – something the current Government has ignored, despite calls for it in 2010 by the Inspectorate.

We’ll be clear about what we want our prisons to do. Labour will identify what makes a “good” prison. Because we want our prisons:

• To recognise they have a role on top of the importance of preventing escapes and disturbances.
• To be incentivised at every level to punish AND reform offenders.
• To reward good performance and have zero tolerance of failure.

And our notion of a “good” prison will be underpinned by five key factors:

• Strong leadership.
• Local partnership.
• A professional workforce.
• Proper accountability.
• Rehabilitation at the core.

I want to use the rest of my speech to outline what we’ll do in each of these five areas.

George Bernard Shaw said “the most anxious man in a prison is the governor”. We know what he meant! They sweat about escapes and disturbances and more. On my travels I’ve met good and not so good governors. And one of the characteristics of a good prison has been a governor in place for a decent stretch of time.

In my own constituency is Wandsworth Prison. The Governor seems to chop and change more often than Premier League football managers. How can you change the culture in a 160 year old prison if you’re in the post less than a year?

Recently I uncovered data showing 5 prisons have had 4 governors since May 2010. And 24 have had 3 governors. These aren’t the ingredients that make for good governance.

We’ll put a stop to this. Prison governors must be appointed for a period long enough to give them time to stamp their mark. And this is implicit when they’re appointed. They’ll then know the task ahead of them, and the time they’ve got to deliver improvements.

We wouldn’t give a head teacher less than a year to run a school. The same should apply to governors running prisons.

We wouldn’t tolerate a school having four head teachers in four years. The same should apply to governors running prisons.

Instead, we’ll invest the time and confidence in them to do it. And I think we should go further.

I want improved career structures for those running prisons, with better training in place.
Good governors should be encouraged to stay in place, not chopped and changed. Specialisms should be nurtured – those good at running women’s prisons, say, or those whose expertise is in the high security estate. I believe prisons would benefit from these changes.

And good governors running good prisons should be rewarded with greater freedom. Underperforming prisons could be incentivised to improve with the prospect of these rewards. Inspected prisons that are performing well should have more control over budgets. It should be up to them who they contract to deliver education, training and healthcare in prisons.

The current process of outsourcing education, training and healthcare isn’t working. Time and again on prison visits my questions about who’s enforcing the contracts are received by shrugs of shoulders. It’s not good enough that taxpayers’ money is used so inefficiently. Well performing prisons, with strong leadership, are the best level for these contracts to be awarded and enforced.

But there’s a flipside. Prisons must be on notice that failure won’t be tolerated. In both public and private prisons. I’ve already said I wouldn’t have been so complacent with Oakwood Prison as Chris Grayling has been. I’d haul in the management, and give G4S six months to show signs of improvement otherwise I’d strip them of the prison. I’d do the same to a publicly run prison too – I’d demand improvement, or there’d be change at the top. Only with a strict, zero tolerance of bad performance can we hope to root out failing management and truly turn round our prisons

The second key factor is local partnerships. Prisons should be rooted in their local communities – working with local agencies, charities, companies and other arms of government. More power given to good performing prisons to decide with whom they want to work.

It shouldn’t be the Justice Secretary from Westminster deciding what is best in each prison. Through the gate support of prisoners is fine, but it should be when prisoners are going through the gate on arrival, not out of the gate on departure. Agencies, charities and companies in prisons from the very beginning of sentences, working to up-skill and train prisoners. Sentence plans that are meaningful and carried through. I am determined to resurrect the concept of a working prison, forgotten by the current government. It’s crucial if we’re to instil a work ethic and give prisoners the skills and confidence they need.

And to back this up I want to explore the idea of prison boards. Each prison governor backed up by key figures from the local area. Local authorities, probation, police, health, education, charities, local employers, and prison staff. All having a shared interest in prisons successfully punishing and reforming prisoners. Rooting prisons in their local community and bringing in outside expertise.

It’s good enough for schools, hospitals and colleges. Why not prisons? And who knows, good performing prisons could see their boards awarded more powers. Such as allowing them to appoint and advertise for governors, like school governors would do for head teachers.

Leadership is also key in prisons. But also crucial is the rest of the workforce. Thousands of dedicated staff at the coalface in our prisons. I pay tribute to their hard work. But for many it’s become a de-skilled job. When, instead, they could be key players in rehabilitating prisoners.

Why do we always talk of bringing in experts to deal with education, training and mental health, when we could be using prison better? I’m determined to restore the workforce’s morale and learn the best lessons from prison systems in other countries where prison staff are skilled up.

I’ll sit down with the unions and the prisons service to see how we can raise workforce standards. And I’m keen to explore the idea suggested to me of a Chartered Institute for prison officers. Accrediting staff, particularly for those with extra responsibilities and competencies. Recognising the professionalism of the workforce. And we’ll consider introducing ‘lead practitioners’ in the crucial areas like anger management, literacy, mental health and drugs.

But there’s a quid pro quo. I’ll demand zero tolerance of corruption. Labour will have a whistleblower hotline, independent of the Prison Service. We’ll publish facts and figures on misconduct allegations – how many, what happened to the investigation and what sanctions were used against those found guilty. And in prisons with a serious problem we need tough sanctions.

More searching of staff at the beginning and end of shifts, and even closed family visits. We cannot allow efforts to punish and reform criminals to be undermined by drugs, contraband and mobile phones finding their way into prisons, fuelling a whole world of crime behind bars. These bad apples damage the reputation of the overwhelming majority of prison staff who are dedicated and law-abiding. It’s in their interests too that we root out the bad apples.

Proper accountability is at the heart of what makes a good prison. Bad performance must be rooted out, exposed and those responsible held to account. Lessons learnt from good practice need to be codified, and spread across the rest of the prisons system.

At the core is the work of the Chief Inspector of Prisons. I want to pay tribute to the work of Nick Hardwick and his colleagues. It’s only because of their forensic investigative work that some of the horrors that happen in our prisons are uncovered. Such as drugs being more easily obtainable than soap in Oakwood prison. The forgotten inmate in Lincoln prison, 9 years beyond the end of their sentence. Infestations of vermin and cockroaches in Pentonville, a prison the Inspectorate said should be demolished. But he’s also held up good practice too

Like the Daycare Centre run for the over 50s in Leyhill Prison. And the effective Prisoner Council at Ford. But I have to be honest. I’m exasperated that the rich inspection reports don’t receive the response they deserve. Their findings and recommendations are designed to improve performance. Areas of best practice aren’t shared enough or elephant traps from Prison A avoided at Prison B. I want to correct this terribly wasted opportunity.

I’ll place a statutory duty on the Ministry of Justice to respond publicly and transparently to reports of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons. With each recommendation addressed, and a published action plan for how the prison plans to respond. Ministers, prison governors and prison boards might disagree with recommendations, but it’s right they’re made to explain why. Everyone can learn from this process. The public confident inspection reports are taken seriously. And concrete steps taken to rectify poor performance. And I want to go further.

I’m worried that the independence of the Chief Inspector isn’t as secure as it should be. Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons should be free of the executive, uninhibited by any undue pressure, if it’s to do its job effectively.

The UK is a signatory of the UN’s Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or punishment – known as OPCAT. To really embrace the aims and aspirations of OPCAT, I want to place the inspectorate on a footing independent of ministers. We will, if we win the next election, look at making the Chief Inspector of Prisons independent.

This could be directly accountable to Parliament, similar to the Electoral Commission, or linked in some way to the Justice Select Committee. We will consult widely with those passionate about this issue, and deliver the change we need to guarantee the Chief Inspector has the independence and powers he needs to ensure the inspection regime is one in which the public can always be confident.

The fifth factor determining a good prison is rehabilitation at its core. We need to have a better handle on what success looks like, something we can measure, so that we can judge good and bad performances. The government opted for a payment by results model without any proper testing or piloting. I’m convinced we can build a value added measure for prisons – just as we can for school age children.

How much has a prison done to help a particular offender address their addictions, their mental health problems, their literacy and numeracy and their skills, and face up to their crime?

With a baseline on arrival in prison, we should be able to keep track of progress. And aggregating up prisoner scores could provide a measure for the whole jail. This would be an added incentive for governors to do more on rehabilitation. And makes the prison system more transparent.

I recognise there’s churn within the system, but with the value added measure attached to each prisoner, there must be a way of making this work. We’ll work with key agencies and stakeholders across the landscape to look at how we can get this to function in practice.

I’ve been candid about some of the challenges we’ll face on May 8th 2015. People ask me will I promise to reverse this, or do that. I’m not going to repeat the Tory mistake of promising what I can’t deliver.

They said they’d solve the prison problem – but they’ve made it worse. They promised control – but they’ve lost it. A rehabilitation revolution was planned but they’ve bottled it. So we know they’ll leave us a challenge – but we will tread carefully. We’ll assess exactly what needs to be done.

That’s why I can’t commit to renationalise private prisons. That’s why I can’t commit to build lots more modern small prisons. And that’s why I can’t guarantee we won’t close some prisons. I won’t set a target for reducing prison numbers. I can’t promise to deliver everything on terms and conditions that prison staff might want. And I can’t say any if it is going to be easy.

But I’ve been around the system, and I know what we can achieve. I can give you the assurance prisons won’t be forgotten under Labour. We won’t be happy with them remaining overcrowded and squalid. We won’t settle for failure in public or private prisons. We will strive to turn prisons into engines of work, education and training. We will work with our staff and train them to deliver what’s needed. We’ll do all we can to address drug and alcohol dependencies, and make mental health a high priority.

Stopping prisoners going on to commit more crimes has to be central to a Labour, one nation, justice policy. By having prisons that work by putting the emphasis on high quality rehabilitation, we’ll make communities up and down the country safer for everyone.