The Prisons Crisis: Andy Burnham’s Chance to Restore Trust in British Justice

By Sam Boyd, Co-Founder, Common Ground Justice Project

In one way at least, Andy Burnham’s first week as prime minister was strikingly reminiscent of Keir Starmer’s: the prison crisis thrust into the headlines, forcing a response from the new leader.

After the family of PC Andrew Harper made a passionate plea to keep Harper’s killers in jail, Burnham acted quickly to announce a “pause” of the unpopular early release scheme planned by Starmer’s government to address prison overcrowding.

How Burnham and his new Justice Secretary, Alex Norris, will square the circle of a prison system running ‘boiling hot’ at near 100 per cent of capacity, remains to be seen. What’s clear, however, is that the crisis in our justice system refuses to go away and remains fraught with political risk.

But there is also an opportunity for the new prime minister. The criminal justice system is rapidly rising up voters’ long list of frustrations with the country. Crime is set to be a top issue at the next election. Whoever can grasp the nettle of serious justice reform will therefore reap major political rewards.

collapse in confidence

The shocking case of PC Harper’s death, which sparked this latest sentencing row, speaks to many elements of a broken justice system. A collapse in trust among victims and the public. An overcrowded prison estate unable to cope. Policy made in response to acute crises rather than long-term planning. A growing perception of ‘two-tier justice’ and sense that crime is becoming consequence-free.

PC Harper’s widow said this week that: “We speak of justice, accountability and standing with victims, yet decisions like this do the opposite." Victims are justified in feeling this way and opposing earlier release of their perpetrators. They are told one thing by the courts only for another to happen. They see a prison system doing little to promote rehabilitation inside and a probation system incapable of managing offenders after release. If prisons don’t have space to keep dangerous criminals locked up, it is understandable for victims to expect the government to simply build more, or to find another way that doesn’t involve letting them loose.

But the policy and fiscal realities are harsh. With prisons set to be full again by November, practical options are very limited. Meanwhile, the changes in the new Sentencing Act, now paused by Burnham, were in fact a relatively small tweak to the rules, shifting the point of release for most custodial prisoners from around 40 per cent of their sentence to around a third.

There are two wider issues at play here which explain public frustration. The first is the confusing language of sentencing in the UK whereby ‘four years’ really means ‘two years inside and two years in the community on license’, leaving people feeling misled. The second issue is that custody is generally seen as the only meaningful part of a sentence, with release the assumed end point. This is regrettable, but not without reason, given the poor quality of offender management and sentence delivery in the community. In these circumstances, to deliver justice and keep the public safe, simply locking people up for as long as possible might appear all we have left to reach for.

common sense, common ground

However, further prison expansion and sentence inflation without also addressing rampant reoffending is not a sustainable solution. Building new prisons, especially to replace crumbling Victorian jails, might be part of the long-term answer. But a serious plan for change must do more across the system – from prevention, to early intervention, to prison reform, to transforming community justice and reducing the shocking levels of recall and reoffending that keep our jails full to bursting point.

Crucially, the system must be seen to deliver proper consequences for wrongdoing. Our research at the Common Ground Justice Project is clear that without passing this test there will never be popular consent for more investment in rehabilitation. Burnham’s mooted 10-year plan for Britain must therefore include a serious vision to build a justice system fit for the 21st century which restores public confidence. There is an opportunity here to move beyond the tired debates of “tough” vs “soft” justice and focus on common sense solutions that work and rebuild confidence. This is a vote-winning prospect. But how do we get there?

STARTING WITH LISTENING

The answer has to start with listening: to victims, to communities, to voters who have lost faith in the system. In this way, it is promising that Burnham has been pulling up chairs in town centres to chat to locals, stressing the importance of listening and finding common ground across political divides. Recently he told Labour members: “Let’s find the confidence to find common ground with other parties where we can .. by seeking more consensus, we may just find the change we make is more lasting”. In no area is this more needed than criminal justice, where our research shows there is far more common ground beneath the surface than headlines suggest.

Britain needs a justice system that works to cut crime. But above all, we need one that commands the confidence of the people it serves: because without trust, without legitimacy, there can be no real justice.