Prisons - Record number of inmates
WORKERS, DEC 2005 ISSUE
Britain's prison population continues to rise with over 78,000 inmates. Britain now has the highest prison population in Europe, having risen 51% in ten years. The government's response is to build yet more prisons – private of course and highly lucrative. The link between the soaring prison population, government policies and money going into the hands of the privateers leaps out forcibly from the data.
16,000 prisoners are housed in unsanitary overcrowded cells. 5,000 prisoners are classified as being mentally ill. 3,000 prisoners are classified as children. Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, intends bringing back into service prison ships, first mooted by Michael Howard and reminiscent of Dickensian days. But then again, so is the jailing of children and the mentally ill.
In addition to private prisons, Charles Clarke is now seeking to expand privatisation throughout the criminal justice system. Not in the good old fashioned sense whereby if you had the money you could buy a judge, jury and the best legal brief, but by privatising the Probation Service and as many aspects of the criminal justice system as he can. The prison population will continue to rise because it will be good business – payment per head of those incarcerated.