Fishburn Hedges

06.10.2011

Criminal justice policy has been a subject close to my heart since I studied it at university. I remember being shocked at how quickly the prison population has risen since the mid-nineties.  I also remember being appalled at how helpless politicians seemed to be, as a result of the media pressure placed on them to be ‘tough on crime’.  Specifically I worried about how we could live in a society which appeared to place no relevance on rehabilitation over punishment, but more generally it was the first time I really wondered whether the media had too much power without accountability.  In fact, it was probably this realisation (which I know is not unusual at all, but just something I came to whilst studying) which made me want to get into communications in the first place.

Anyway I was hugely heartened when I read the foreword to Make Justice Work’s recent report by Peter Oborne.  Set up in 2009 to raise awareness of the futility and expense of locking up low-level offenders, Make Justice Work also wanted to identify community alternatives to custody that are most effective both at reducing reoffending and cutting costs.  Over the last year and with Oborne as the Chair, the campaign has led a select committee style enquiry, where a panel (which included Lord Ian Blair, Javed Khan of Victim Support, John Thornhill of the Magistrates Association, Paul McDowell of Nacro, Roma Hooper of Make Justice Work, and Dame Anne Owers who is a former Chief Inspector of Prisons) visited four alternatives to custody around the country. 

Oborne starts by saying that he has “always been uneasily aware that political correspondents such as myself report law and order issues in a false and often misleading way.”  He believes reporting is often loaded, and that politicians are dubbed ‘soft’ or ‘weak’ if they are anything other than ‘tough’ – resulting in a framed debate.  It was for these reasons that he wanted to Chair the enquiry.  He goes onto say that what became so obvious to him was that these alternatives to custody are not the soft option so often portrayed, and that the people they spoke to who had completed the programmes had often been found jobs and were far less likely to commit another crime.  The re-offending rate for a woman’s project in Bradford is between 5 to 10% (where the national re-offending rate was as high as 65% in 2004).  Oborne also highlights costs: three months in prison costs a bare minimum of £11,000, whereas the full 12 month course at Manchester’s Intensive Alternative to Custody Project is approximately half that.  He concludes by saying: “That is why by the end of our yearlong study I had reached the conclusion that Ken Clarke’s revolution is the most intelligent and realistic answer to many of the most intractable problems in the criminal justice system.”

In July, rioting across the country led to sensational media coverage, which demanded and resulted in a string of custodial sentences for first offenders.  Will this knee jerk reaction lead to more offences when these rioters leave prison?  Let's hope not.  The research done by Make Justice Work suggests that community based solutions for non-violent offenders would be more effective and efficient.  Whether future coverage of criminal justice will act to change current policy will be down to other journalists following Oborne's example.  They need to give politicians the space to address a problem without media coverage which demands prison for everyone.

I have to declare an interest here, because I worked one day a week for this campaign during my third year at university (2009/10).  I know that the campaign has been on the political party conference trail trying to raise awareness, so I asked the Director (Roma Hooper) how the report had gone down.  Roma said: “The consensus is clear. Rigorous and community sentences which address offending behaviour and have a punitive element are much more likely to succeed in reducing re-offending  with lower level offenders than a short stint in prison.   But blocks continue to get in the way - these higher level community sentences need sustainable funding, and critically, strong political leadership which is courageous enough to counteract the uninformed - whether they be journalists, politicians or the public.”

So the question I ask now is will other journalists follow in Oborne’s footsteps?  And if so, will the communications issues around criminal justice policy finally see a new dawn?

Posted by Natasha Jones.