Great news PM focusing on prison reform: putting governors in charge, reforming education and ranking our prisons

I have long campaigned on prison reform and am really proud our PM is taking up the cause.

Explaining the need for reform in what No 10 is describing as the first speech from a prime minister focusing solely on prisons since John Major in the 1990s, Cameron will say: “The failure of our system today is scandalous.”

“Forty-six per cent of all prisoners will reoffend within a year of release; 60% of short-sentenced prisoners will reoffend within the same period. And current levels of prison violence, drug taking and self-harm should shame us all.

“In a typical week, there will be almost 600 incidents of self-harm; at least one suicide; and 350 assaults, including 90 on staff. This failure really matters.”

He will argue that reoffending costs the country up to £13bn a year. But Cameron will also make a moral case for a renewed focus on cutting reoffending through education and rehabilitation, saying that for too long governments have adopted an “out of sight, out of mind” approach to prisons.

“When I say we will tackle our deepest social problems and extend life chances, I want there to be no no-go areas. And that includes the 121 prisons in our country, where our social problems are most acute and people’s life chances are most absent,” he will say.

Even the Guardian approves:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/08/cameron-give-more-power-governors-prisons-shakeup
If you want to read more my book on prison reform, Doing Time, is still available in all good book shops.

My conference diary in Manchester - events with Women2Win, Newcastle University, CSJ, and multiple meetings

The diary is packed for the next 3 days in Manchester but you will find me at various events:
- Sunday I will be at the Women2Win reception for all the female MPs, candidates and future leaders who W2W have guided in the past and will do more to assist in the future. I am passionately behind this project, as a trainer and mentor, which saw amazing women enter parliament at the last election: the event is at the Stanley Rooms in the Midland at 7.30-9
- for more details read here:  http://guyopperman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/working-with-women-2-win-is-one-of-best.html
- I am also chairing a Newcastle University discussion event between 5.45-6.45, when I will be listening to a number of academics, think tanks and specialists from Newcastle University and beyond debate energy security, climate change and more. It promises to be an entertaining hour, although as the chair I am impartial, and simply keen to get our experts being grilled by the public so come along. Later that evening I will be at the northern conservatives reception.

- Monday I will be up early for the Women2Win morning event at 8 in the Conservative Home Marquee. I then have 7 meetings that day with organisations as diverse as Newcastle Airport, Shelter, and Northumbrian Water. I will be at the Destination Full Employment debate at the Jurys Inn in the evening at 6, which promises to be a fascinating debate.
- Tuesday I am again going early to the breakfast event hosted by the Centre for Social Justice on reforms to reduce reoffending. Anyone who has read my book Doing Time knows that this is an issue I am passionate about: http://guyopperman.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/my-first-book-doing-time.html
I will then be going to the Membership of a political party in the 21st Century discussion hosted by Policy Exchange with Rob Halfon MP, who is both a mate and an able deputy party leader. I am then going to a Forestry lunch, before a series of meetings and events about the Northern Powerhouse, and dinner with local members who are attending conference.

Michael Gove putting education, literacy and earned release at the heart of prison policy

Michael Gove is rightly putting literacy at the heart of his prison policy. He gives a big speech today and mor on this will follow but the principles are clear, and not far off what I proposed in my book, Doing Time. 
Prisoners could be allowed out of jail early if they sign up to English and maths courses behind bars, Michael Gove will say today. In his first speech on prison policy since becoming Justice Secretary, he will throw open the prospect of ‘earned release’ for those inmates who knuckle down to gain educational qualifications.
Fuller details here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3164648/Get-jail-early-taking-lessons-Gove-s-reward-inmates-attend-classes-English-maths.html

Even the Guardian approves of Michael Gove as Justice Secretary of State, and quite right too

I believe there is great scope for prison and other reform of the judicial system and Michael Gove has won deserved praise for his fresh approach this week. Don't take my word for it - this is what the Guardian says: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/23/guardian-view-on-justice-secretary-michael-gove-hope-for-penal-reform


For those who want to read the full speech it is here: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/03/whats-good-about-right

A Charity or philanthropic institution could run a prison better than the state or a private company

Last week we debated prison reform in the House of Commons and I raised the need for alternative providers. At present, there are only two providers: the state and since the 1990's there are private companies. I want a charity or philanthropic institution to address this problem and take over a lower category prison and provide a different approach. After all we allow schools to be run by charities, businesses and faiths, so why not prisons?
The third sector magazine has done an interesting review of the debate here:
http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/Governance/article/1292673/tory-backbencher-floats-concept-charity-run-prisons/

This idea I first addressed in 2012 in the Commons and put in my book Doing Time. There is a full chapter entitled "Big Society Prisons".

The full debate from last week is here:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2014-04-30a.302.0&s=speaker%3A24962#g303.0

What is a prison for and what can we learn from Norway?

You can listen to BBC Radio 4's thought provoking assessment of prisons here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b040j3y4

My book Doing Time talked about ways to stop reoffending, which as of 2010 was around 6 out of 10 prisoners reoffending within 12 months of release. The book is still available and the BBC did an assessment of it here:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20270600
The cycle of crime, punishment and re-offending needs to be broken. I believe that working prisons and payment by results are a real step forward but Norway is the gold standard, since it boasts a re-offending rate of 20%, the lowest in Western Europe. But we need to change out attitude to crime and punishment as well.


Prisons appear to play a different role in Norway - less about punishment and more a place of rehabilitation. One in particular - Bastoy, an open prison on an island south of Oslo, where only 16% of released prisoners re-offend - has received widespread international attention. How far is its success attributable to the environment or a more humane philosophy? Guards are trained in criminology and psychology, and inmates enjoy a lifestyle described by critics as being like a "holiday camp" (despite the fact it is cheaper to run than most Norwegian prisons).
The programme asks - What is prison for, and what can we learn from Norway?
It is well worth listening to.

Criminal Justice & Courts Bill Committee will dominate my next 3 weeks in the Commons

We have committee sessions morning and afternoon March 18,20,25,27 and April 1, starting at 8.55 and usually ending at 5. When people ask why parliament is often empty on parliament channel tv this is the reason. At any given time members will be sitting on a bill committee scrutinising it line by line, or on a select committee whether it is health, transport or treasury - every department has a select committee, or in Westminster Hall, the second chamber of the House of Commons where we have lesser but often more local debates. So if you want to know where I am on these days it will be in committee not in the main chamber. The Bill looks to reform prisons, sentences, juries, the courts, and tidies up a number of different areas in the justice department. As always with all Bills the first draft is not the final draft as we go through multiple assessments of the Bill, as does the House of Lords, until hopefully we take a piece of legislation that is 80% right and turn it into something that is watertight, reforming, and makes sense. The process takes many months. This committee is merely one stage of that, and the committee is cross party.  It is televised but I confess I am not totally clear where you can find this, but it will be available. There are daily transcripts. If you want to read my cross examination of witnesses in the first evidence sessions [or any part of proceedings] go here for the first session, which was concerning Magistrates, IPPs, and Prison Reform, with the Howard League and the Criminal Justice Alliance: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/pbc/2013-14/Criminal_Justice_and_Courts_Bill/01-0_2014-03-11a.3.0?s=speaker%3A24962#g3.51
And here for my questioning of the representatives of the Bar Council and Law Society on issues of judicial review, protective costs orders, judicial discretion and costs: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/pbc/2013-14/Criminal_Justice_and_Courts_Bill/02-0_2014-03-11a.7.0?s=speaker%3A24962#g7.97
It is not for me to judge the evidence of the people who gave up their time to appear before members of the committee. The majority are unpaid or are appearing as representatives of their part of an affected business or third sector organisation. Some are more helpful and assisting than others. Some changed my mind with their evidence. Others, particularly on the second session, I am afraid changed my mind against the witness. However, one thing is clear: as a committee we are grateful to all for attending.

Thank you to the IEA - intensive Q+A session on prison reform yesterday

Fascinating evening last night where I gacve a 20 m inute speech on the next steps for prison reform, and faced an intensive grilling from over 30 experts at a dinner in westminster.
Everyone from prison governors to ex-prisoners, police officers, economists and academics were there.
Good to discuss the proposals for academy prisons, prisons run by charities or faith based organisations + the idea that a prisoner has the choice of prison he or she goes, based upon the best possible outcome for rehabilitation. Now that would be a brave new world but we have done this in education, so I see no reason why the prinicple, in theory, at least, cannot be extended. A tiring but very interesting evening.

Why can’t we have an "Academy" Prison run by a Charity, Academy institution or a Community?

Today I am speaking at the IEA on a new type of prison. The broad thrust of what I am going to say is set out below:

Prison does work. It locks people up so that the prisoner cannot then commit a crime: yet prison for years has failed to change the prisoner’s behaviour. Despite multiple new laws, and successive politicians passing tougher and tougher sentences, the prisoners still reoffend upon release in their tens of thousands.
Over the last 20 years prison numbers have doubled from 43,000 to 87,000, and under the last Government the rates of reoffending rose to around 70%. On top of this,
- over half the prison population have a drug problem,
- some 50% of prisoners are less literate than the average 11-year-old,
- and one in five prisoners who take drugs say they took them for the first time in prison.

You do not need to be a fan of the film The Shawshank Redemption to know that traditional prisons are ill-adapted to the modern world and a desire for rehabilitation, with rehab facilities squeezed like a quart into a pint pot.

There is ample evidence, however, to show that prisons that provide for activities, training and opportunities for rehabilitation, have much fewer problems on their wings, and are much less likely to suffer with riots and unrest than those where prisoners are locked up 23 hours a day, in cramped cells, with no opportunity to change their behaviour.

Now is the time to think Radical!
The Community Prison

- If Hospitals can be transformed by Foundation status, then why not a prison?
- If educational charities can transform schools why cannot they do the same for prisons?
Look at the amazing Excelsior Academy in Newcastle - this has transformed a school and an area.
As Charities like Absolute Return for Kids [ARK] or the Harris Foundation run state comprehensive schools open to all, then why could they not run a prison?
- why cannot a philanthropic charity, with by and large altruistic motives, take on the responsibility?

In truth, there is no reason why these things could not happen. It’s just that no one has ever really tried before, even though inside prisons there are thousands of not for profit organisations working and producing real results.

Imagine a prison run not by the public sector, or for profit. To misquote a dodgy former Prime Minister [Blair] there just might be “a third way” to run a prison, in the community, by the community, and for those from that community who have fallen by the wayside. Clearly this is not possible for a Category A top security prison but for the lower grade prisons it is more than possible.

For anyone who has spent time in prisons, the lack of innovative thought and specific engagement with the prisoner is striking. I accept that there are honourable exceptions, but I would still like to see a ‘Foundation Prison’.

More particularly, I would like to see prisons incentivised to change the prisoners behaviour: a start would be a category D or C prison for lower risk prisoners. There are admittedly problems raising capital on a not for profit format but it is not impossible.

There are some outstanding examples of charities showing us how to rehabilitate our prisoners. The St Giles Trust “Through the Gates” programme offers prisoners housing, education, training and the silver bullet of prisoner rehabilitation – employment. Why does it not run a prison? Similarly the Shannon Turst is another institution that is leading the way on reform and is capable of taking the next strep of running a prison.
For those who want to know more on my ideas, my book, Doing Time - Prisons in the 21st Centruy - is still available in the shops or on Amazon [If you must, but they are putting bookshops out of business]. All proceeds go to the NHS charity that helps brain tumour sufferers and funds research.

Just finished speaking in Criminal Justice + Courts Bill: many good changes to improve our courts

Full details of the Bill on they work for you or Hansard tomorrow but
Key measures are:
•delivery of a firm but fair package of sentencing and criminal law reforms that properly punish serious and repeat offenders and better protect victims and the public.
•making criminals pay towards the cost of their court cases. There are also reforms of judicial review to tackle unmeritorious claims and unnecessary delays to the system.
•putting education at the heart of youth custody, giving young offenders the tools they need to turn their backs on crime.
•modernising the law to tackle the influence of the internet on trials by jury to ensure defendants receive a fair trial, reflecting how technology and the wealth of information available at the touch of a button has changed the way we live. We are also increasing the upper age limit for jurors from 70-75 and so harness the knowledge and life experiences of a group of people who can offer significant benefits to the court process.
Fuller details on the Bill here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-justice-and-courts-bill-fact-sheets

UPDATE: My debate is found here: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2014-02-24a.47.0&s=speaker%3A24962#g77.0 and includes extensive questioning of the former Justice Minister, Nick Herbert, MP, and Sir Alan Beith, MP, Chair of the Justice Select Committee .... but in particular with the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Keith Vaz, on everything from Hexham Magistrates to my book Doing Time.

Westminster this week

The Mandela tribute takes place tomorrow in the Commons at 2.30 - I shall be there.
Prison Reform and Literacy then dominate my week in Westminster: Monday sees an event with the Prisoner Learning Alliance (PLA) to launch its first year findings in Parliament. Given the rapid change within prisons and through-the-gate services under the Offender Rehabilitation Bill it is crucial to ensure that the role of learning is championed to reduce reoffending rates. It will be an opportunity to discuss the PLA’s first report ‘Smart Rehabilitation: learning how to get better outcomes’, with the keynote speech from Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons. I have written and spoken on this issue a lot – notably in my book, Doing Time.


Tuesday there is Treasury Questions, and a chance to debate Ed Balls proposals to borrow even more, and tax people more, followed by the debate on the National Insurance Contributions Bill, which helps businesses.

Wednesday is Prime Ministers Questions and in the afternoon I will be attending and then speaking very briefly at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Literacy, who are publishing the final report from the Youth Literacy and Employability Commission. Most of Wednesday I will be involved in Home office business debates in Westminster Hall at 9.30, and then in committee at 1.30 on the Private Members Bill – the Citizenship (Armed Forces) Bill of my colleague Jonathan Lord.

Details of the Bill’s passage through the House of Commons can be found here:
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2013-14/citizenshiparmedforces.html

Home Affairs Select Cttee chair, Keith Vaz praises my book, Doing Time, in the Commons

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2013-11-12a.790.1&s=speaker%3A24962#g791.0
It is a good exchange. Not sure I agree with the answer of the Minister. I find it bizarre that a labour politician and I are on the same side of the argument on this issue of stopping drugs getting into prison.

IEA Conference this weekend - speaking on prison reform and regional banking

I have plans to speak at the IEA's summer conference this weekend
I shall be talking on the issue of prison reform, plans for prisons that both pay by the results - ie reduction of reoffending and better rehab, and the ideas for both community and private prisons in the brave new world where the state does not know best. Victorian prisons with no emphasis on changing the prisoner as opposed to warehousing them are not the way forward. We want innovative ideas, officers directly involved in the change mentality, proper mentoring and a different attitude seen at places like HMP Doncaster and Peterborough.
If academies and foundation hospitals can transform their sector why not prisons? This is building on the work of the book I published last year, Doing Time:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doing-Time-Prisons-21st-Century/dp/1909099031
I shall also be leading an evening seminar on community banks and the localisation of banking services in an increasingly globalised world.
Both ideas are for me key policy changes and I have high hopes for community banking to address local lending issues, particularly in relation to fuel poverty and oil buying.
I will also be going to listen and debate with professors and various leading thinkers from around Europe who will be debating and discussing multiple issues including education reform, improvement in health services, and a discussion on nationalised or privately run train services.
The IEA are a really good and interesting think tank which challenges governments both here in the UK and abroad: http://www.iea.org.uk/ and worth checking out.

Prison Radio - I will be live in Brixton Prison on Wednesday at 9.45am discussing "Doing Time"

My book "Doing Time" is going down well in prisons and the Prison Radio Association have kindly asked me to come in to Brixton Prison on wednesday May 8th to talk live on the Prison Radio service about the changes I want to see in prisons. My thanks to Phil Macguire and Chris Impey for making this possible. I will report back after the visit and the radio show. If you want to know more then go to www.prisonradioassociation.org
It is a while since I was last in Brixton. It is an iconic prison in London and I had clients there about 10 years ago so I will be interested to see the changes. The prison features very heavily in John Podmore's seminal work on his life as the prison governor there - a book he wrote, called Out of Sight, Out of Mind, is required reading for anyone interested in prison reform.

Speaking about my book "Doing Time" Hexham Book Festival 6.30 Monday Queens Hall

Prison reform and criminal justice are the issues addressed in my book which I am discussing in a Q and A session Monday evening at the Queens Hall Hexham - the proceeds from the book go to my favourite NHS charity the National Brain Appeal
Please feel free to come along - its my first Book Festival! I will be signing copies of the book with the bookshop Cogito Books afterwards in the foyer.
The BBC reviewed the Book here:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20270600

The short summary would be as follows:
A ground-breaking study of national importance of our criminal justice system by an MP and a former criminal barrister of note.
Prison does work. It locks people up so that the prisoner cannot then commit a crime: yet prison for years has failed to change the prisoner's behaviour. It is a disappointing fact of our prison system that under the last government released prisoners had a reoffending rate of approximately 70%. Prisons are a short term fix, not a long term solution. The public does not want us to be soft on prisoners. The Justice system needs to command the respect and confidence of the people. It clearly has not commanded that respect for some considerable time. Repeated polling shows that the public wants prison to be more effective at changing prisoners' behaviour. Put simply, it wants government to knuckle down and make prisons work . This study attempts to analyse what went wrong with the prison regimes in the past, makes suggestions for future changes, and assesses how things are changing under the new government. By ignoring prisoners, locking them up, and then discharging them with no basic skills, and still drug addicted, we have created a recipe for disaster and ever increasing prison numbers. This government should make the tackling of crime and reoffending a number one priority. The key point is that we know what the problems are: all are capable of being addressed.

Hexham Book Festival - top authors speaking [& me too - on "Doing Time"]

http://www.hexhambookfestival.co.uk/
A packed programme featuring Claire Tomalin, Michael Frayn, Joe Simpson, Dan Snow, Gavin Hewitt, Alan Johnson, Martin Bell, Edward Stourton, Chris Mullin and many more ... including yours truly on Monday April 29th April at 6.30 in the Queens Hall, Hexham
I shall be talking about prison reform and my book, Doing Time.
To my amazement the book is selling really well!
My publisher recently informed me that I am shortly to receive a royalty cheque - which goes to the National Brain Appeal, the NHS charity that backs the hospital that saved my life, and which pioneers treatment and research in to brain tumours
http://www.hexhambookfestival.co.uk/programme/guy-opperman-doing-time/

Prison Reform Update

The book "Doing Time" is not 50 shades of grey but it is selling well!
It is still available at all good bookshops and on Amazon / Kindle.
These last few months the campaign for prison reform has not stopped and I wanted to update regular readers of what we are doing. The Justice Secretary, the Prisons Minister and the PM have all got a copy of the book, and we have continued to take the message of change through rehabilitation far and wide:
- In december we held a debate in parliament on literacy in prisons: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2012-12-12a.128.0&s=PRISONS+speaker%3A24962#g128.1
- I have held a series of book launches, seminars and discussion events in Hexham, and in several events in London, with think tanks like Policy Exchange and more recently with the new Think Tank, Bright Blue: http://brightblueonline.com/index.php/events/past-events
Their event last week in the Two Chairman Pub in Victoria, London was a lively old fashioned pub based Q+ A that went on for nearly 2 hours as we discussed issues of crime, punishment, rehabilitation, victim expectation, deductions for literacy and so much more over a couple of pints - a genuine pub and sawdust event with no holds barred - I loved it! They are a very interesting bunch of innovative young thinkers and political free spirits, and worth getting to know / going along to their events.
I have also done a legal book launch with Hammicks in law land on Chancery Lane / the Temple and am speaking at a number of future events in the north and across the country over the next months, and may even be taking the ideas behind the book to our Europeans neighbours at a policy seminar in the summer - details all to be confirmed but my thanks to the Institute of Economic Affairs for the invite:http://www.iea.org.uk/home

Finally, I have also met with 3 fascinating people who have helped shape my views on prison reform: two former prisoners Jonathan Robinson and Jonathan Aitken have both served their time and are now providing their insight on changes to the prisons they occupied for the wrong reasons. The former MP Jonathan Aitken is a genuinely contrite and deeply insightful man who is doing all he can to make our prisons better. I have got to know him and hope to tap his massive knowledge of the subject some more. Likewise Jonathan Robinson, formerly of HMP Bedford and now author of his book "In It", a warts and all study of his time inside and his proposals for change.
My last special meeting was with Sean Prendergast, who runs the most important Jamaican prison, the Tower Street Correctional Facility. He explained to me the difficulties that he faced with over 1800 inmates in a Victorian prison designed for 800, with 3 to a small cell and no toilet, and minimal ability to provide rehabilitation facilities. We spoke at length. I am grateful to all 3 experts for their insight, wisdom and advice.
One of the great things about being an MP is the ability to try and take an issue and attempt to influence the way a country and other places address their problems. I do not presume to have the answer to all of prisons problems but I do want to try and make a difference on this issue in the years that lie ahead. Finally, if you have not read my book I urge you to do so! All proceeds go to charity.