News Brief

Government's penal policy a scandal says Williams

-12/7/04

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has branded the government's penal policy "scandalous".

He also accused the three main political parties of "point scoring" in the debate on criminal justice.

The attack follows a sermon at the National Festival Service of the Children's Society in Canterbury Cathedral last year, Williams expressed sharp criticisms of the youth justice system and its inability to differentiate between adults and the young.

The latest salvo came as the Church of England's General Synod voted to accept a report calling for prison to be used as a last resort.

Dr Williams condemned the government for overseeing a massive rise in the prison population and for locking up more vulnerable children and women.

The Rethinking Sentencing: A Contribution to the Debate report discussed at the Synod in York calls for more emphasis on restorative justice instead of prison. It comes as the Home Secretary is said to be considering the wider introduction of such approaches in the criminal justice system.

Such approaches shift the focus from punishment making things right, and repairing the damage done by offenders. It also means that offenders can often be dealt with outside the courts, if they agree to a form of reparation or apology.

They have been previously backed by other bishops, and by the thinktank Ekklesia.

Dr Williams said: "In private and increasingly in public, the members of all the main political parties are prepared to agree to the situation we currently face and our penal policy is simply scandalous.

"There is no other word for it and I have heard no serious person in public life deny that."

He blamed the government for failing to prevent the prison population almost doubling from 42,000 in 1991 to its current high of 76,000.

"Programmes of rehabilitation and education in the prison system are consistently frustrated by the abnormal mobility of the prison populations, as a direct consequence of overcrowding," he said.

"These programmes are frustrated and they are not likely to be helped by some of the ideas for further privatised involvement in this area."

Dr Williams went on: "There are other areas in which we can see scandal.

"We have heard from the Bishop of Leicester about the outrageous treatment of children in our penal system.

"We have heard about problems for women in prison and the disruption to family life."

He also highlighted the unrepresentative ethnic profile of the UK's prison population.

A leading former Home Office civil servant, prison governors, and a Lord Justice of Appeal for the Mission and Public Affairs Council were among those to write the report.