09 October 2008
Buxton, Derbyshire
Jack Straw has addressed the annual conference of the Prison Governors' Association.
[Check against delivery: this is the prepared text of the speech, and may differ from the delivered version.]
The Right Honourable Jack Straw MP, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice:
Introduction
Good morning.
It is my great pleasure to be back in Buxton once again to speak to your conference.
I will not pretend to understand precisely what life is like for you and your colleagues. But during my time as Justice Secretary, and before, I have made it a priority to meet with and listen to people working at the sharp end of the justice system, not least to get to know the concerns you have and the pressures you face. That is why I am here. And why I visit prisons as often as I can; just this afternoon I will be meeting staff and prisoners at Werrington Juvenile Centre.
Everywhere I go, I never fail to be impressed by the dedication and professionalism that prison staff at all grades display every day. So I am also here to say a profound thank you.
But since I last spoke to your members it is not only the return of Peter Mandelson to the Cabinet that has changed: the prison population reached a record peak of 83,810, but has now stabilised. Since last October, 2,500 new places have come on-stream, and the government has committed to providing 12,500 more - taking total capacity to 96,000 net by 2014. David Blakey's recommendations have led us to toughen still further measures to control supply of drugs in prison. David Hanson's 'offender compacts' have been trialled in three West Midlands prisons. The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act introduced a minimum two-year tariff [in other words, a four-year sentence] for IPPs [Indeterminate Sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection] and measures to manage recalls more effectively. Adult reoffending is down 23%, and Parliament has taken the important step of making it unlawful for prison officers to strike or to take other forms of industrial action.
It is testament to the hard work of prison governors and staff at all levels that so much has been achieved during the past year, even in the face of the pressures of a record prison population, increased public and media expectations and a challenging financial climate.
It was this town's namesake - Thomas Fowell Buxton - prison reformer and brother in law of Elizabeth Fry, who once remarked:
'The longer I live the more I am certain that the great difference between the great and the insignificant is energy - invincible determination - a purpose once fixed, and then [nothing] or victory.'
Over this past year your energy and your determination has been plain for all to see, and for this you have my profound thanks. You do a very difficult job and you do it very well.
Prisons transformation
One of the most striking achievements in criminal justice since 1997 has been the extraordinary improvement of conditions in prisons and the nature of prison regimes. Any of you who have worked in prisons for the last 10 years or more will have seen for yourselves - and indeed been at the forefront of - this remarkable transformation.
Prisons are now far more decent, more humane and more constructive places than at any point in recent history, which has resulted in a significant improvement in discipline, in safety, and in maintaining order.
I am aware of the dangers of tempting providence from even mentioning the word, but there were fewer escapes in the whole of last year than there were in just one week in 1992. While the number of serious disturbances has plummeted to a fraction of what they were a decade ago.
The safety of prisoners and the safety of staff has also improved considerably. Both the Attorney General and the Home Secretary have committed to pursuing a robust approach to prosecuting assaults against prison officers, and NOMS [the National Offender Management Service] continues to work with the POA [Prison Officers' Association] on zero tolerance.
This improvement of behaviour is down to a number of causes. On the one side, the training, equipment and strategies used to enforce order - including at the sharp end with Tornado Teams - is far better than it was. So from a prisoner's point of view the stakes have been raised considerably. On the other hand, conditions are better, treatment much more decent; almost every cell has internal sanitation and the revolting stench of excrement is no longer the environment in which staff have to work and prisoners have to live. There is a scale of privileges for those who are ready to earn them.
But when I talk about decency and better conditions, I do not mean that they are - or should be - places where no privilege can be revoked or no material comfort denied. Privileges should be just that - privileges.
Indeed, part of our fair, decent treatment of prisoners involves giving them the chance to earn their keep, to show they are committed to reform, and to access rewards if they fulfil their responsibilities. It is being clear about what the rules and expectations are, and about what prisoners have to gain from complying with them. This is precisely what David Hanson's 'offender compacts' are trying to achieve.
Equally, a decent prison does not require that we forget or ignore the fact that prisoners have committed offences - sometimes very serious offences - and indeed, that the public rightly expect protection from, as well as punishment of, offenders.
But it does require that we give prisoners the chance of turning their lives around.
For that reason, prisons are now also much more constructive places than they were a decade ago, places of punishment and reform. Big investment, allied with a change in attitudes and approach, has greatly improved the quantity and quality of rehabilitation, treatment and training - so that prison is now addressing the causes of offending behaviour.
Can I just take a moment to look at the language that we use when talking about prisons. Punishment seems to be a word which has grown unfashionable, but everyone is clear what it means. First and foremost, prison is punishment. Also, reform. It seems to me pretty clear what this means: giving people the opportunity of a better life. I think they are words we need to reclaim.
As you well know, a disproportionate number of offenders arrive at prison with drug, mental health, educational and behavioural problems.
So we put healthcare in the hands of the experts, giving prisoners access to the same standard of care as patients outside.
Increasing numbers of offenders with mental health problems are being picked up earlier and transferred to more appropriate accommodation sooner [31% more prisoners were transferred to hospitals in 2006 than in 2002], whilst the introduction of NHS mental health teams has greatly improved the care available in prison.
More than two thirds of prisoners arrive with drug problems. But a thirteen-fold increase in investment in drug treatment has helped a record number of offenders get off and stay off drugs. Numbers failing mandatory drug tests have fallen by 64% as a result of improved treatment and measures to stamp out supply.
Education has been another key focus for reform. More than half of prisoners left school with no qualifications, and a third with literacy skills at or below those expected of an 11-year-old child. So spending on offender learning has more than tripled to £165 million per year, and we are placing a greater emphasis on improving literacy and numeracy.
Meanwhile, record numbers are completing practical, vocational training in prison so they have a genuine chance of finding gainful employment on release. Last year, almost 40,000 prisoners went into training or employment after prison. And David Hanson is leading a drive to involve more employers from the corporate, public and voluntary sectors in the process.
As a result of this period of sustained reform - and even more critically, the individual leadership provided, and environment set, by prison governors - we have set new standards by which prisons should be judged, a floor below which we will not fall.
And that must be the bottom line. But the taxpayer also has a bottom line – which is that every penny and every pound of their money must be spent wisely and to greatest effect.
Value for money
We have an overarching responsibility to the public to be clear where our priorities lie, and honest about where and how the prison system can work more efficiently.
Our obligation is even greater in light of the tight CSR [Comprehensive Spending Review] 07 settlement - which commits us to delivering 3% savings year on year to March 2011 - and the extraordinary prevailing economic conditions against which none of us are immune. Across the Ministry of Justice we have to make £1 billion worth of savings by 2011, which will mean all areas of the business will have to look at how they work and where they can be more efficient.
To put this into context, the investment seen in prisons since 1997 amounts to a 37% real terms increase, and over the past five years in particular the rate of increase has been greater than that of the NHS. And in December last year, we prised £1.2 billion from the Treasury to provide extra capacity. So we continue to make a very substantial investment in prisons, and indeed across the criminal justice system.
We now spend more on law and order as a percentage of GDP, and as a proportion of total government spending, than any other country in the OECD.
But like all other public services, we also need to look afresh at the ways in which we work and identify where changes, improvements and efficiencies can be made to deliver more, with better value for money.
The challenge is no less than building a modern efficient prison estate, and a modern efficient prison service.
I know that there are a couple of specific areas which are cause of some concern to the Prison Governors' Association and its members. So let me address directly our plans to provide increased prison capacity and to modernise the workforce.
Prison building programme
The prison building programme has been caricatured by some as 'pack 'em in, lock 'em up and throw away the key'. This is simply untrue.
These new prisons will not be large warehouses, as some have feared. That is in no one's interest. What we have envisaged are 'prison complexes' incorporating smaller, more flexible accommodation blocks. A total capacity of 2,500 could be made up of five units of 500, holding different categories of offenders. This would allow us to combine the best aspects of smaller prisons with the efficiencies of sharing improved facilities.
I know that many people, including possibly many in this room, advocate building more individual prisons rather than clustering a number of prisons on one site. I can see the logic. Given infinite resources, this would be a more attractive option. We recognise the importance of offenders having the support of family and friends in order to reduce reoffending. But these proposed complexes will be located in the areas from where most offenders come, the areas of highest demand.
All of you know that once opened, prisons are usually very well supported by communities. But the road to opening them is usually bumpy and almost always strewn with controversy. Aside from the issue of cost, it is easier to find three large sites and to get planning permission for them than it is to find 15 smaller sites, or even to recategorise a prison - that's the truth of the matter.
Much of the existing prison estate is old, tired and inefficient as a result. We have a responsibility to ensure that the new capacity provided comes in the form of new, modern prisons, with improved, purpose-built facilities.
We also have a duty to provide a decent regime which gives prisoners the chance of reform, we have a duty to staff to ensure their safety, and we have a duty to the taxpayer to provide best value for money. I don't think that these are conflicting priorities.
We appreciate the Prison Governors' Association's frank response to our recent consultation and your input into the roundtable hosted by David Hanson.
The consultation has now closed, and I will publish a full response in due course. I do not want to pre-empt the outcome, but for now the principle remains that economies of scale can be made by providing larger prison complexes with shared services.
Workforce modernisation
Second, I'd like to discuss our plans to modernise the prison workforce.
As well as improving the prisons estate and maximising its potential, we must make some difficult decisions about what work should be done in prisons, how, and by whom.
So we are identifying new and more efficient ways of running prisons through the Workforce Modernisation programme - which I know has been the focus of your conference. With 80% of costs related to staff, we must ensure that we have the right numbers across the estate, at the right grades, with the right skills to carry out their jobs effectively.
We must continue to develop your skills as the managers of the Prison Service, to ensure you are equipped to deliver to the high standard we have come to expect. But we must also take a hard look at the cost of management, start to invest in more efficient ways of working, and reduce unnecessary burdens on front line managers.
I am convinced that this is a significant opportunity for long-term savings to be made. But I also know this is a matter of concern to you. The proposals for workforce modernisation are far-reaching, and I appreciate that some aspects will feel uncomfortable at this stage.
I am also very much aware that change in prisons has to be carefully managed, given the inherent risks if things go wrong. Any changes have to be workable in an operational environment - in times of high pressure as in times of relative calm.
And clearly they must be informed by those with experience of working in prisons - which is why we selected an experienced senior governor to run the programme with a team of people who have worked in prisons. And it is why I am pleased that the Prison Governors' Association has been involved in discussions with NOMS and continues to provide constructive input.
The next few weeks will be critical to future of the Prison Service workforce, not least because we have agreed to invest an additional £50 million in pay in 2009-10, providing a modernisation deal is reached which will deliver long-term cost reductions and increased flexibility.
We look forward to working with you to come to an agreement which helps to achieve more efficient ways of running prisons, whilst maintaining the strong standards of performance across the service.
Thank you.