Strangeways 25 years on: Lord Woolf lecture
Progress in reducing chronic levels of overcrowding and improving treatment and conditions in prisons has been set back by the reluctance of politicians “to explain to the public the limited improvements that can be achieved by greater reliance on more and longer imprisonment,” Lord Woolf, chair of the Prison Reform Trust, said at a lecture at Inner Temple Hall this evening (1 April).
Lord Woolf chaired the original inquiry into the Strangeways riot which occurred 25 years ago today on 1 April 1990.
The former Lord Chief Justice said that positive steps to reform the system since the disturbances have been impeded by the failure of political leaders “to combat a hostile media and the contest between the political parties as to who could be toughest on crime. Most politicians believe there are no votes in prisons and mistakenly think there are votes in being toughest on crime.”
Lord Woolf called on political parties to “include an undertaking to advance the cause of achieving a just system without engaging in a political contest. Let’s take politics out of prisons.”
Reflecting on the demands of meeting an ever-rising prison population, Lord Woolf said:
“We are now going through one of most difficult periods of financial stringency and I see no reason why sentencing policy should ignore the financial state of the country. Even the Health Service is not spared difficult decisions as to priorities and surely, the economic consequences of the use of imprisonment should not be excluded from rigorous scrutiny.”
A copy of Lord Woolf full speech is available by clicking here.
You can listen to Lord Woolf’s speech below.
