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19 How. J. Penology & Crime Prevention 1 (1980)

handle is hein.journals/hjcj19 and id is 1 raw text is: The Howard Journal Volume XIX 1980. pp. 1-8 League Leader (A Column of individual comments on current issues contributed by the Director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, by members of the Council of the League, or by the Editors of the Howard Journal.) Dis-May The Report of the May Committee on prisons has to be considered on two levels: whether it will meet union demands for better pay and recognition, and whether it will stimulate prison reforms. It is therefore difficult to comment on the Report (Committee of Inquiry 1979), because this Journal must go to press almost immediately after its publication, but will not be published for over two months. If in the meantime the relevant unions are not satisfied and resort to drastic industrial action, a very serious situation could arise which could set back reform for a long time. The Report does suggest that there should be agreements as to forms of industrial action that are illegitimate (para. 10.49), and we can only hope that branches and individual members of the Prison Officers' Association (P.O.A.) will not take action which would cause hardship to prisoners or their families, or damage staff/inmate relations. The document says enough of the right things about penal policy to enable the Home Secretary to quote it in support of progressive measures if he has a mind to; but it puts little pressure on him to do so. The committee had a rare opportunity to give powerful reinforcement to those who, with the Howard League, have been pressing for fewer and shorter prison sentences. It agrees, but instead of calling for a determined policy of reducing the prison population, it says limply that numbers will probably continue to be substantial (para. 3.72). It has failed to insist that each area should have an adequate range of non-custodial methods of dealing with minor offenders before money is poured into new prison building: this was the first recommendation of the Howard League (1979b), although of course we accept that the old prison slums need to be made habitable, or replaced by new institutions which are not at the back of beyond. The Report could have made a firm statement of principle that petty offenders should not be sent to prison, but waters this down by adding wherever possible (para. 3.49). It meekly accepts that there are no larger-scale resources for . . . a shift back to the probation order (para. 3.51) but, noting that in the case of prisons the money may be found when it is judged desirable (para. 6.91), it proposes doubling capital expenditure on prison building to a total of some three-quarters of a billion pounds over the next 15 years. This arithmetic is based on the assumption that numbers will remain at least at their present level, so that for example the 5,50.0 places taken up by providing integral sanitation in cells could only be made good by new construction of about 12 new prisons, with another 20 to eliminate cell-sharing (para. 6.84). Yet the report itself points out that Category B and C prisons cost E40,000 and E20,000 per place, respectively, compared with E23,000 for a purpose-built detoxification centre place and E7,000 and E4,000 respectively for converted places in probation hostels 1

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