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Penal System

Our plan was a penny on income tax to go towards education, but the hon. Gentleman’s party wants a penny on income tax to build more prisons, and support a policy of failure. Is that the right way? It does not seem appropriate to me at all. The Leader of the Opposition, seems to be all over the place on the issue, too. Sometimes he wants to hug a hoodie, and other times, he wants—as he told the Evening Standard—to convict and lock up more and more criminals. I presume it depends on whether one catches him on a flip or a flop. The former is a flip, and the latter a flop. The Government have a problem with their attitude, and they know it perfectly well. It was encapsulated by the response from the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice, the right hon. Member for Delyn (Mr. Hanson) at Justice questions the other day. He recognised the fact that we cannot simply carry on increasing the prison population, but went on to say:"““I want to see the figure reduced, but we are building more prison places because, inexorably, there will be people who need to be in prison.””—[Official Report, 18 July 2007; Vol. 463, c. 266.]" He sees the increase in the number of people in prison as inexorable, while at the same time, he wants a reduction. I do not think that it is inexorable because we need to find ways of making our penal policy more effective. Let us be clear that only one aspect of prison is effective; it works in only way: protecting the public from the activities of those who are locked up.