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. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth