PRT welcomes appointment of Chris Grayling as Justice Secretary

The Prison Reform Trust has welcomed the appointment of Chris Grayling as Justice Secretary and called on him to have the “strength and courage” to build on the important programme of justice reform begun by Ken Clarke.

In a speech in 2009 as shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling described Britain’s criminal justice challenge “as part of a broader tapestry of social problems that must be addressed.” Highlighting the rehabilitation of offenders as one of his priorities for law and order, he said:

“I have profound concerns about the way in which we deal with offenders, particularly the young and those who arrive in prison as drug addicts.

“Our welfare reform and justice plans include radical plans to bring the principle of payment by results to offender management and preventing reoffending.

“We are much too inclined to put prisoners into a cell for eighteen hours or more a day, and to do much too little to deal with root problems in their lives – like addiction, lack of education, or mental health problems – or a destructive combination of all three.

“We know that the majority of offenders have major challenges in their lives. Many are victims of the social crisis in many of Britain’s communities.

“Yet we keep these people in prison, often for too short a time to rehabilitate them, and then send them back to the same streets where they offended in the first place, to find the same pushers who sold them drugs in the first place, and to steal money in the same communities they blighted in the first place.

“This has to change: I believe our plans for prison reform – coupled with our plans that would require every prisoner released from prison without a job to join a structured back to work programme – would make a real difference.”

Commenting on Chris Grayling’s appointment as Justice Secretary, Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“It doesn’t make social or economic sense to imprison people only to release them a few months later homeless, jobless and ready to offend again. As the new Justice Secretary has previously acknowledged, the solutions to crime do not lie behind bars but in housing, employment, health and social care and family support. Chris Grayling will need the strength and courage to resist political point scoring, challenge vested interest and avoid undermining a reform programme that is reducing crime and saving money.”