Hard Time and Open Prisons

Recently there has been some debate about how to reduce the number of people in our prisons, and the number of people who reoffend and return to our prisons. There has been attention paid to the Scandinavian model of open prisons for low-grade offenders.

I say those who promote that prisons should be about rehabiliation - not punishment - are wrong. Being sent to prison is a punishment - there is a depravation of liberty and removal of rights. Rehabiliation need to come after prison.

What I believe would work is a two-tier system of punishment, then a rehabilitive stage in the open prison model. The first stage, when the sentence is passed would involve the offender going to a prison like they would now. They would serve two-thirds of the sentence and apply for parole.

The next stage would come after parole had been granted - the offender would then be moved to an open prison where they would recieve work related training or work for wages, have to pay rent for their home and be responsible for getting their own food and preparing meals - teaching life skills needed to survive 'on the outside'. They would still have restrictions on their liberty - no going out at night, no alcohol and drugs, and such-like.

It is not a soft-on-crime approach and a genuine attempt to teach the skills needed to live in the community. In the short-term, such a system would probably cost more. But over the long-term, if Scandinavian trends are correct, the number of prisoners would reduce.