Tackling Prison Overcrowding: Build More Prisons? Sentence Fewer Offenders? by M. Hough, R. Allen and E. Solomon

Bristol : Policy Press ( 2008 ) 138pp. £ 14.99pb ISBN 978-1-84742-110-4 There are two commonplace facts about crime and justice in England and Wales. First, is that criminal victimisation has continued to decline since the mid-1990s. Second, is the coincidence of this decline with a phenomenal growth in the prison population by over 60%. This short monograph presents a collection of papers from the proceedings of a symposium that examined government policy on the latter issue as contained in Lord Carter's (2007) report. After an introductory chapter setting out the scope of the symposium, Nicola Lacey begins her analysis with the increased politicisation of law and order in England and Wales. Lacey argues that liberal democratic economies are in a situation akin to the ‘prisoners' dilemma’; that is to say, ‘electoral arrangements and other institutional features of economic and political organisation [in these countries] have created a situation in which the strategic capacity for political and economic coordination necessary to reduce punishment is lacking’ (p.9). Her analysis shows the difficulties of justifying imprisonment on cost-benefit analysis, not only because it fails to reckon with the full complexity of the issues; but also even on such a utility analysis, the evidence would seem to show that ‘increased prison spending is a form of fiscal mismanagement’ (p.16). For Lacey, the solution lies with distancing criminal justice policy from party politics by creating a bipartisan as the equivalent of the Monetary Policy Committee, contending that it is in the interest of politicians to do so. In Chapter 3, Carol Hedderman offers a critical analysis of the grounds for the Labour Government's decision to build more prisons to try to overcome prison overcrowding rather than, say, sentence fewer offenders. Hedderman offers a compelling analysis that casts doubt on the soundness of the evidence on which the government has based this policy decision, describing it ‘inadequate’ and often ‘highly misleading’. Jacobson et al.'s chapter examines the issues from the standpoint of sentencing; they explore, inter alia, whether, and how, sentencing guidelines should be sensitive to prison capacity. Liebling discusses the proposal for ‘Titan’ prisons, arguing convincingly, I think, against the primacy given to ‘economic efficiency’ and making a case for issues of legitimacy to be taken more seriously. Chapter 5 explores issues of the terms and conditions of employment in private prisons, while Chapter 6 presents a review of various ‘decarceration strategies’, based on the experiences of countries such as Finland and Canada. In the penultimate chapter, Rod Morgan offers a summary of some of the key themes emerging from the symposium, and Rob Allen's contribution completes the volume by examining how some of the proposals might shape the future development of penal policy. This is a well-organised book, with logically-strong progression from chapter to chapter. The analyses are bold, compelling and thoughtful, with often radical proposals for tackling prison overcrowding. But perhaps it is the very radical nature of some of the proposal that may make them less attractive to some politicians. Nonetheless, it would be interesting to see how penal policy develops in the next couple of years under the current Coalition Government of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties.

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