EXCLUSIVE: Britain sleepwalking into reoffending crisis
Former prisoners are warning Britain is sleepwalking into a reoffending crisis because support services in prisons aren't running
Last updated 24th Mar 2021
Former prisons have issued a startling warning, saying Britain is facing a reoffending crisis as we move out of lockdown.
Support services that help reform prisoners before they're released have all but stopped during the pandemic.
It's after we revealed some prisoners have been cut off from their families for more than a year, which the government's own research suggests could lead to more crime.
Jacob Hill is a former prisoner from Hull, who now runs his own business that helps people with criminal convictions find work.
He says education is a vital prison service, giving people "more options on release", and warns not having it at the moment could be "more damaging" for wider society.
"If we're going to release these people, I want my neighbour to be a well-rounded citizen who has that right support in place" Jacob says.
"If you send people to prison purely to punish them, you're going to end up with a worse person than when they went in."
Meanwhile, another former prisoner who works with women in prison is calling on the government to use the pandemic as an opportunity to change the way justice works.
Kate Fraser wants to see more rehabilitation within the community itself, keeping women who break the law in contact with their families and supporting specific needs.
"Being able to stay in the community means the damage prison inflicts on you doesn't happen" Kate says. "You don't lose your home, you don't lose your children and you may be able to keep your job."
She says prisoners who have been sentenced for minor crimes have had to endure some of the toughest conditions we've seen in decades.
It's feared that could trigger a mental health crisis, and lead to more people with criminal convictions reoffending when they're released.
Elsewhere, the justice secretary is under pressure today as a new report finds the justice system is "besieged on all sides''.
The Public Accounts Committee says and "huge'' backlogs are causing "unacceptably long'' delays for victims and the public.
Committee chair Meg Hillier said: "Our justice system is besieged on all sides and it is not clear the MoJ has a firm grip on this challenge even with a desperately needed funding boost. This isn't justice for victims, offenders, taxpayers or society.''
She said victims and witnesses "waiting in limbo because of the long waits for a day in court mean justice is too often being delayed to the point of being denied''.
"A prison system operating with a dangerous maintenance backlog continues to swallow billions of taxpayers' money but fails to deliver the key benefit society expects from that investment."
"The probation system is still reeling from 2014's massive and catastrophic experiment in reform and its juddering reversal.''
The MoJ faces "significant risks across the full range of its services, without a clear sense of prioritisation'', the report found.
Among a series of recommendations, the MPs called for a plan to be set out within a month with "clear projections and timeframes'' on how to reduce the backlog, "particularly in the criminal courts where the backlog is most acute''.