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The two unfortunate women, Josie O'Dwyer and Emma Humphreys, died as a result not of illegal drugs, however, but of medicinal drugs. To improve key performance indicators, prison governors can wean prisoners from relatively harmless drugs such as cannabis--which has never been known to kill anyone--and put them on killer drugs.
Emma Humphreys, who was abused throughout her life, became addicted to chloral hydrate in prison. She was released from prison when her sentence was judged to be unfair because of the foul abuse that she had suffered at the hands of a partner. She died in August this year, before she reached her 31st birthday, and her relatives are convinced that her death was due to her addiction to a medicinal drug that she acquired in prison.
On the final day of her life, Josie O'Dwyer took a list of drugs--I believe there were 13 in all--which I recorded in an early-day motion towards the end of the previous Session; it was an incredible cocktail of medicinal drugs that would have been enough to kill her many times over. Again, that woman was taking those drugs in prison.
Such is the regime of sedation in women's prisons that, on 13 August this year, there was a riot in Holloway--not because the women did not have their drugs, but because the drugs were delivered late. Three members of staff had flu that they had given to one another, and someone had to be brought in from outside to give the drugs. For a short period--a matter of a few hours--prisoners were without their sedation, which caused them to set fire to the bedding and the clothing within the hospital. We have a regime in prison which depends on women prisoners being sedated for most of the time.
By the time they get to prison, many young women have been abused in some way--by their partners, by society, by the care system or by their parents. A common reaction to abuse is self-mutilation. The almost universal medicine--it is a traditional, knee-jerk prescription--for such young women is largactol, a neuroleptic drug given to those who are deeply psychotic. The drug is used in other situations with which my hon. Friend the Minister will be familiar from his previous job.
Those young women form a special group in prison and, in the cruel jargon of prison, they are known as "muppets" because they walk in a funny way. These young women are not just damaged in prison, but probably their health has been damaged for life. The Committee recognised the importance of providing alternatives to prison and the probation programme which
tackle the problems presented by women's programmes specifically. The Government have agreed with the Committee that the needs of women offenders should be effectively and systematically addressed.
I would commend to all hon. Members a book written by Angela Devlin called "Invisible Women", published in June of this year, about women in prisons. I challenge anyone not to feel moved and horrified by the evidence it provides of what has been created within women's prisons--not just by medicinal drugs, but particularly by illegal drugs. There are regimes of bullying and gangsterism in prison, and examples of horrific inhumanity of man and woman to women. Drugs are the currency of prisons, and the flow of the drugs coming into prisons is out of control. The searches carried out on women in prison are bestial and foul, and disgrace the name of this country. Many women's prisons can be described rightly as gulags, rather than the areas of solace, asylum and care that we would rather think them to be.
I look forward to the next report on the subject, and I am sure that the Committee will look in more detail at the subject. I am sure that we shall see an improvement--despite the rather complacent Government reaction. Governments always say, "Yes, there is a problem, but it is not as bad as it used to be and we are tackling it." They are not tackling it with sufficient speed.
Another of the Committee's recommendations is that handing out community sentences is an effective way in which to reduce prisoners' drug habits in the long term and to protect the public. Of course that can be done--it is being done elsewhere--but extraordinary situations can arise, such as the two separate cases in Gwent in which two offenders were found guilty of very serious offences for the second or third time, and told the court that they had become addicted to heroin in prison and that if they went back they would become addicted again, because more heroin is available in prison than on the streets of Gwent.
On those two separate occasions, the two different courts decided that the offenders should not go to prison. That is a sensible and civilised outcome, but hon. Members can imagine the howl from the tabloid press, saying that drug addicts can get out of going to prison. Certainly, the cost to society and to the individuals involved would have been far greater had they gone to prison.
I appeal to my hon. Friend the Minister, who has deep knowledge of these matters, not to follow the traditional course of Governments, who are addicted to their daily fix of tabloid admiration by promoting policies that appear to be tough. I get tired of reading press releases on law and order from the Government and from the previous Government in which one can hardly get to the third or fourth sentence without finding the word "tough".
Mr. Bob Russell (Colchester):
Clearly, the best alternative to prison sentences is for people not to be put in the position of facing a prison sentence in the first place. The soundbite of being tough on the causes of crime deserves better than to be abandoned now that it has served its pre-election purpose.
I welcome the report. As one of the Committee's members, I stress the fact that every recommendation had unanimous, all-party support. I fear that Parliament is failing to address the need to formulate linked policies that will help to create a society in which there is less crime, and consequently less need even to consider sending so many people to prison.
As the Chairman of the Select Committee said, the need to gaol some people for serious and repeat offences is not at issue, but the record number of prisoners that was reached earlier this year is unacceptable. The statement in the Government's response that
I am in favour of joined-up government: matters affecting our daily lives should not be put into self-contained compartments, and there should be more understanding and consideration of how decisions in one area will affect activities elsewhere. Government and society generally need to adopt an holistic approach.
What will be the Government's definition of success regarding the statement that Labour will be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime? Being tough on crime presumably means that more people will end up in prison, while being tough on the causes of crime suggests that fewer people will drift into a life of crime. The prison population has increased by more than 5,000 in the past year; does the Minister agree that that suggests that the Government are failing to deliver on their promise to be tough on the causes of crime?
Apart from some of the former communist countries, Britain has a higher proportion of its population in prison than anywhere else in Europe: nearly 120 in every 100,000. I know that the Government want the United Kingdom to play a leading role in the European Union, but is the Minister proud of the fact that we are the current champions of the European prison league and are set to retain the title for the foreseeable future?
It is not an exaggeration to say that our prison system is in crisis. Paradoxically, it is a growth industry, and career prospects seem good--for prison staff, at any rate. The Home Secretary's millennium project appears to be to build several more prisons at £60 million a time to accommodate the unacceptably large numbers being sent to prison. No doubt those involved in the private prison sector, and promoters of the private finance initiative, are enthusiastically urging the Government to follow the example of the American privatised prisons. I suggest that we would do better to adopt what Finland has done in recent years to reduce its prison population while keeping crime levels in check.
In the past five years, the UK prison population has increased by more than 50 per cent., from 43,200 to 66,273 as at 4 December. It is good news that the previous estimate of a prison population of more than 82,000 by 2005 has recently been revised downwards, but even if next year's predicted figure of 63,200 proves correct, it will still leave Britain with a prison population out of step with most other developed countries. That is an appalling situation, and we must all endeavour to rectify it.
On financial grounds alone, the House should be united in wanting to see fewer people being sent to prison. In 1997-98, the annual average cost of keeping someone in
prison was £23,000, which is a terrible waste of public money when one considers the cheaper and better alternatives to prison for people who receive relatively short sentences. That figure is not the true cost, but only the amount that comes from the Prison Service budget. To be added to that figure are any housing and social security benefits to which prisoners' families may be entitled, miscellaneous other costs and the loss of taxes and other contributions to the Exchequer that someone not in prison would pay if he or she had a job. For those in young offenders institutions, the cost soars to more than £30,000 a year for each person in custody.
The huge increase in the number of young people ending up in prison is especially worrying. From 1996 to 1997, the number increased by 12 per cent. to an average 10,800 over the year. In the same period, the number of women prisoners rose by 19 per cent., to 2,680. Currently, 53 babies are in prison with their mothers.
"Prison should be used only where necessary"
is to be welcomed. How will that message be conveyed to the courts?
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