More information found....

As I have now joined the Howard League for Penal Reform they have started to send me newsletters and leaflets on up-to-date news.

From The Howard Autumn 2010 Edition...
"Take Action 2010: The New Government responds" by Steve Gummer

• The prison population has doubled since 1994s, now with more than 85,000 inmates
• It costs more to put someone in priosn for a year than it does to send a boy to Eton
• Short prison sentences are impractical, many offenders end up losing thier jobs, homes and families during their time inside
•  An estimated 160,000 children have a parent in prison; they are 3 times more likely to engage in a nti-social and delinquent behaviour than their peers, whilst 65% of boys with a convicted father go on to offend themselves
• Reoffending rates for those serving short prison sentences are double that of those on community orders which cost a tenth of the price

From Take Action 2010 booklet

• Investing in the community:
  Costs £100,000 per place
  Community sentences, unpaid work, restorative justice, drug and alcohol treatment and programmes offering mentoring and training to allow people to make amends for what they have done
  POSSIBLE FOCUS OF MY QUESTION??
• Real work in prisons:
  What little work that is offered in a prison is menial, repetitive and poorly paid, with an average of around £9 a week
  Howard League's graphic design studio Barbed in Coldingley prison
  Pay prisoners a fair wage that is taxed like the rest of us
  ANOTHER POSSIBLE FOCUS OF MY QUESTION....

The Howard League for Penal Reform Journals

From visiting the Manchester University Library, I collected a few journal entries from the Howard League, which will be one of my main sources of information. After reading the first one, I don't feel it was necessary to write about as I need to cut my topic down! The second one was very useful however, as it gave me information for one of my potential questions: whether work in prisons is helping rehabilitation. It also gave me an overview of British Prisons throughout the ages and how they have progressed.

THE ENGLISH PRISON SYSTEM: A RETROSPEC AND AN ANTICIPATION
By M. Hamblin Smith, M.A., M.D.

• Old prisons were very 'militray in their character, retired naval and military officers handing out discipline, treating men in the mass rather than individuals
• It was assumed that sentences of imprisonment should have a detterent side, therefore attempts to make prison life as uncomfortable as possible
• Prison Labour: Jeremy Bentham, his "model prison" would be self-supporting, even profitable
• Keeping the prisoners employed freed them from idleness, traced back to the treadwheel that provided power for corn-mills,a circular saw, or a pump

Rehabilitation of Offenders (Amendment) Bill 2010-11

When researching a recent government bill for changes to the judicial system, I came across this bill that is amending the rehabilitation of offenders act from 1974. At the moment it is still on the House of Lords second reading stage, but it could be quite useful to follow this.

http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-11/rehabilitationofoffendersamendmenthl.html