Pubdate: Thu, 08 Feb 2001
Source: Guardian Weekly, The (UK)
Section: Pg 10
Copyright: Guardian Publications 2001
Contact:  75 Farringdon Road London U.K EC1M 3HQ
Fax: 44-171-242-0985
Website: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk
Author: Alan Travis

CHIEF JUSTICE CLASHES WITH STRAW ON JAIL POLICY

Lord Woolf Describes Overcrowding As 'AIDS Virus Of Prison System' While 
Report Shames Failing Brixton

Britain's most senior judge clashed with the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, 
last week over Labour's plan for longer prison sentences for the 100,000 
most persistent offenders, which is to form a centrepiece of the party's 
election manifesto.

Mr Straw is prepared to see prison numbers rise to tackle the hard core of 
persistent criminals who he claimed were responsible for nearly half of all 
crime.

Within hours the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, described jail 
overcrowding as the "Aids virus of the prison system" and called on courts 
to pass shorter sentences.

"The judiciary must play their part in reducing the use of custody to what 
is the acceptable and appropriate minimum," he said ". . . Frequently one 
month will achieve everything that can be achieved by three months, and 
three months will achieve everything that can be by six months, and so on."

Lord Woolf made it clear in his Prison Reform Trust lecture that the best 
way of cutting crime was a higher detection rate rather than an increase in 
the prison population of 62,000, which is already forecast to rise to more 
than 78,000 by 2007.

His views were in sharp contrast to those of Mr Straw, who said community 
penalties did nothing for 80% of the 100,000 hard core of the most 
persistent offenders.

"Almost without exception, every persistent offender sentenced to custody 
has been through the mill of community sentences and has still 
re-offended," Mr Straw said in a lecture to the Social Market Foundation.

Tony Blair told the Cabinet that the "war on crime" would be a central part 
of Labour's election manifesto, and at its heart would be a radical reform 
of sentencing to ensure that the persistent offenders received longer 
sentences each time they were convicted by the courts.

Meanwhile the full extent of the appalling conditions inside Britain's 
first "failing" jail was revealed in a report published last week by the 
Chief Inspector of Prisons, Sir David Ramsbotham. He said that far from 
improving, standards at London's Brixton prison had deteriorated since his 
previous inspection, and included practices that were "totally unacceptable 
in any jail".

His inspection team had found that the facilities for patients in the 
jail's healthcare centre were "without doubt the worst that we have seen 
anywhere in England and Wales".

The snap inspection was carried out last June, eight months after the 
prisons minister, Paul Boateng, had named Brixton as Britain's first 
failing prison. It was given a year to improve or face the threat of 
privatisation.

Sir David said it had been failed by everyone in the Prison Service, from 
the ministers and the prisons board that had failed to provide the 
necessary resources, to the "too many poorly performing staff at Brixton 
who are failing to pull their weight in regard to their duties, or to do a 
day's work for a day's pay".

At the time of his inspection Brixton had no workshops, no educational 
facilities worthy of the name and no gymnasium available to the vast 
majority of prisoners. "In short, there is virtually nothing with which to 
occupy prisoners in purposeful activity."

The report included findings that the system by which inmates contact staff 
in an emergency had been sabotaged by staff on more than one wing. This 
betrayed "a disgraceful attitude by staff towards those in their care".

The report also found that staff on suicide watch were falsifying their 
entries on monitoring sheets. At 2.45pm the inspection team found 
observations already entered for 4pm - "a despicable practice, displaying 
both a lack of care and worrying certainty that no manager would check the 
malpractice".

The jail now has a new governor, its fourth in four years, and bids will be 
invited this month from reluctant private prison companies to take over the 
jail.
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