I was moved, and shocked, to read in the Guardian of the failure of British prison system and of the plight of their inmates, now totalling 78,000.
It was a cry from the heart of Frances Crook, retiring after 35 years as chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform. After devoting her life trying to change the system she despairs at her failure.
I only know of the charity because of its small hut in a lane near the forbidding Wandsworth prison near where I lived 80 years ago.
After walking a few steps out of the gates released prisoners had their first helping hand from the charity, perhaps some food and advice.
No wonder she is despondent about our prisons which she sees as the last unreformed public service, with minister after minister having done nothing about an ‘unfair and unjust system’.
She can indeed be proud of the charity’s success in 2012, when, with police forces, it vastly cut the number of children being arrested. This has already saved countless thousands of them from trauma and lifelong effects.
I hope that her final assessment, that ‘a small ethical and compassionate system would save the taxpayer a fortune and change lives’ will at last achieved by a bolder minister and government.
If so it would be a triumph for the charity, founded in 1866, named after John Howard, who in the late 1770s over 15 years, and with his own money travelled around Europe to try to evolve a humane prison system for English gaols.
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