Children held in custody are in ever increasing danger – must our judges now do the unthinkable?

New statistics shine a light on just how chaotic and dangerous our overcrowded prison system has become. Drastic action is now required

Among children held in custody, incidents of self-harm have increased by a staggering 40 per cent to nearly 1,800 incidents in the space of one year (Getty)

It has become a cliché to say that prisons in England and Wales are in crisis. At the Howard League, we have been saying that every year for at least the last five years. Can anything be in a steady state of crisis? It appears so. I defy anyone to read the statistics published today by the Ministry of Justice on safety in custody and not conclude that the prisons are in a lamentable state. I would go further and say the state of prisons today make a travesty of the law.

If a prison can do anything, then at a very basic level it should be able to keep those confined within its walls safe. When somebody is sent to prison, then the punishment is deprivation of their liberty. But once behind bars, that person is in the care of the state. What we see in these latest figures is that the state is unable to “care” for those it imprisons. The statistics shine a light on just how chaotic and dangerous our overcrowded prison system has become.

Where to begin? Deaths have increased by 10 per cent in the space of a year, with prisoners who lost their lives through suicide rising by 31 per cent. Assaults by fellow prisoners have reached new record highs. Assaults on staff rose by 29 per cent. And the violence is not confined to other people. Incidents euphemistically described as “self-harm” – but which given the bladed articles and ligatures involved would be better described as “self-injury” – have increased by 23 per cent. Among children held in custody, such incidents have increased by a staggering 40 per cent to nearly 1,800 incidents in the space of one year.

If prisons cannot even keep children safe, then do not expect them to act as schools or hospitals or job centres as well. The idea that prisons can rehabilitate people through education, or treatment, or training, is currently a pipe dream. The pipe may be found full of drugs and likely being smoked by a prisoner bored out of his mind because he is locked in his cell for the vast majority of the day. It is into this void that the frustration and distress becomes violence: violence against other prisoners, violence against staff, violence against the self.

It amounts to a totally unacceptable deterioration in an area of domestic policy suffering from neglect because the government’s focus is elsewhere. A serious attempt to ease pressure on the prisons and reform sentencing would require legislative time currently swallowed up by our ongoing travails over Brexit. We have seen five justice secretaries in the last five years. The latest incumbent, David Gauke, has his heart in the right place. So does his prisons minister, Rory Stewart. But their arms are currently tied behind their backs.

Prisons existing under such conditions will only breed more crime and misery on the streets. That is why they make a travesty of the law. If politicians are unable to take legislative action, perhaps it is time judges and magistrates do the unthinkable and start refusing to send people to prison because it is too dangerous to do so. How many more people have to die before that becomes the only reasonable and humane thing to do?

Andrew Neilson is the director of campaigns for the Howard League for Penal Reform