‘Life means life’, Just Stop Oil and prisons

Many issues arose from the speeches made at the recent Conservative Party conference.
Questionable plans to make studying Maths and English mandatory until 18, disregard for
the climate crisis, use of blatantly transphobic language, the description of immigrants as a
‘hurricane’, and of Winston Churchill (who despite his great speeches was famously racist,
even for the standards of the 1930s, and a poor military strategist) as this country’s greatest
ever leader were all areas of concern.
However, one issue that I have not seen much written about is this government’s attitude
towards the criminal justice system. In his speech, Rishi Sunak said that his conservative
government would introduce mandatory full life sentences for those who have committed
‘heinous’ crimes (sexually sadistic murders and premeditated murders of children). I don’t
disagree that child murderers should be locked up for life, but mandatory sentencing is a
clumsy policy which necessarily cannot take account of the circumstances of a particular
case and a particular offender. Of course some murderers should be locked up for life, but
to say that all perpetrators of heinous crimes should be given mandatory full life sentences
before the evidence has been examined is poor policy. It also misses half of the point in
prisons which is rehabilitation. Prisons are not there to just throw away the worst of our
society and leave them to rot indefinitely: they also there to reform, so they can emerge as
better people.
This harshening of prison sentences for murderers accompanies stricter laws for protestors,
with Rishi Sunak clamping down particularly on ‘Just Stop Oil’ protestors. At a time when UK
prisons are at crisis point, should the government be focussing on sending more people to
prison and locking those people up for longer? Should they be introducing mandatory life
sentences for whole categories of crimes which will inevitably lead to large number of
prisoners serving life sentences? Should they be increasing sentences for individuals taking
direct action to campaign for more radical action to address an issue of global concern? I’m
sure I would be furious if my morning commute was delayed by some people crawling in
front of my car, but is it really a good use of this country’s increasingly limited prison space
to lock these people up for multiple years?
In their most recent reports, HMP Bristol and Leeds reported bad overcrowding with two
prisoners often sharing cells designed for one person. They also reported high levels of
violence, prisoners spending up to 22 hours per day locked in their cells, and a lack of any
sort of meaningful activity or education. This is not just the case for Bristol and Leeds, and it
only takes a quick read of some reports of UK prisons by the Chief Inspector of Prisons to
know that it is a national crisis. Overcrowding is such a problem that portaloo-style cell
blocks have had to have been built in some institutions, and some estimates predict that in
three years, without significant reform, this country will run out of space to house inmates.
‘Life means life’ misses half of the point in the prison system. Prisons are there to keep
criminals away from society, but they are also there to reform and rehabilitate those who go
in. Increasing sentences without funding this country’s understaffed, overcrowded, poorly
facilitated criminal justice system will lead to nothing but reoffence and unchanged crime
rates.