"Getting A Grip On Prisons" The limits to punishment and deterrence

"Getting a grip on prisons" was a Labour manifesto pledge and Labour had previously promised to deliver the Conservative Government's plans to create an additional 20,000 prison places. Prison overcrowding became the new government's first crisis and was exacerbated by the exemplary punitive and deterrent sentences handed down in response to the racist riots of July 2024. There is a strong practical, economic and moral case that we should not and cannot to build our way out of the crisis - but to advance that argument requires not only that we make the case for prevention and rehabilitation but also that we address the arguments for punishment and deterrence, concepts too often ignored by academics and other advocates for prison reform.   

Nick Hardwick has recently retired as Professor of Criminal Justice at Royal Holloway University of London and was previously HM Chief Inspector of Prisons and Chair of the Parole Board. 

Ben Crewe is Professor of Penology & Criminal Justice, and Deputy Director of the Prisons Research Centre, at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge.