The Guardian view on prisons: the public deserves better than this litany of failure | Editorial

Prisons in England and Wales are in an appalling state. In his last annual report before stepping down, Charlie Taylor, the head of the prisons watchdog, highlights good practice where it exists. One example is a strengthened focus on reading in some jails. Another is the work done to improve staff-prisoner relationships at HMP Low Newton, County Durham. But the overwhelming impression made by the document, published on Tuesday, is of profound and shocking failure.

The criteria on which inspectors judge prisons are safety, respect, preparation for release and purposeful activity. This serves as a useful reminder of what they are for. Unfortunately, they are failing on all fronts and especially the last. Only two men’s prisons out of 35 were judged as offering “good” work and education. In most places budgets and classes have been cut and attendance is poor. Even a gritty drama such as the BBC’s Waiting for the Out could be considered rose-tinted when compared with some real jails. In a survey for the inspectorate, 34% of male prisoners reported spending more than 22 hours a day locked in their cells.

Mr Taylor also sounds the alarm about drugs, as he has done before. The scale of this problem is hard to believe. The police are meant to be the front end of the criminal justice system, with offenders moving through the courts and then to prisons and probation. But the situation with drugs is such that there is now a huge job of law enforcement to be done in and around prisons themselves. This is not a matter of occasional contraband being smuggled past security but systematic and flagrant drug dealing inside prisons, overseen by organised crime gangs that operate with impunity. In a survey, 41% of male prisoners said that drugs were easy to get hold of; 47% of women said that they had a drug or alcohol problem.

It was announced last week that Amber Rudd, a former home secretary, will carry out a review for the Ministry of Justice, focused on security. After commissioning another senior Conservative, David Gauke, to review sentencing policy, the government clearly sees an advantage in a cross-party approach. But while drone technology has undoubtedly made the job of keeping drugs out of prisons far harder, it is disturbing that the Prison Service is viewed as unable to cope and in need of help from outside.

Some of Mr Taylor’s strongest criticisms are aimed at Whitehall. In his view, effective governors are held back by “ludicrous rules” and “irksome demands” from the centre. If Andy Burnham heeds the departing watchdog’s advice, he could seek to make deals granting greater autonomy to prisons, as well as to mayors and councils, as part of a regional empowerment package.

Self-harm in women’s prisons continues at a “staggeringly” high level. In the male estate, the illicit economy fuels alarming levels of violence. A further challenge is how to prepare for a wave of early releases in the autumn. Currently, 20% to 30% of those reaching the end of a jail term have no home. There are distressing failures, too, in relation to victims, and the information that they are given about releases.

Mr Taylor is right to say that the public deserves more for the £59,000 per year, per prisoner, that prison costs. The existence of pockets of progress, which he identifies, shows that it does not have to be like this.

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