Prisons have been harassed with inmates doing little more than watching TV during the day and sleeping since the COVID pandemic, and there will be “a price to pay,” it has been warned.
Chief prison inspector Charlie Taylor said many prisons suffered from a “post-COVID torpor.”
And he said Monday at a hearing in the Middle Temple auditorium in central London that most were doing a “better job of punishing than rehabilitating or protecting the public from future crimes,” according to a copy of his speech.
While the long-term effects of confinements on criminals behind bars are not yet known, he said, “there is likely to be a price to pay for boredom.”
At the conference for Royal Holloway, University of London, he said that since the end of 2021, the inspection had examined seven Category C training prisons, where there had been a “depressingly low level of activity for prisoners in the whose responsibility is to educate, train and increase the employability of prisoners, with the aim of preparing them for their eventual release ”.
He described it as a “kind of post-COVID torpor” that appeared to have “infected many prisons, with empty workshops and classrooms, and prisoners were running out of time watching TV during the day and sleeping.”
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Taylor added: “It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post. , the postponement of group therapy and the lack of education or work “.
He said recidivism rates had remained “stubbornly high” at around 40% for adults and more than 60% for children.
“Better a poor horse than no horse at all.”
“This suggests that most prisons are doing a better job of punishing than rehabilitating or protecting the public from future crimes. I don’t expect that after the last two years, we will see an improvement in those numbers.”
He called for a change so that prison is “an essential component of a successful justice system, which the public trusts to keep them safe.”
“With the right focus on growing great leaders and recruiting and retaining strong and effective officers, with buildings that create a safe and productive environment and the belief that with the right help, most people will stop committing crime.” he said.
“We can develop a prison system that supports change and becomes a value for money for the £ 45,000 the taxpayer spends on each prison post.”