Conservative Government Penal Policy 2015-2021 : Austerity, Outsourcing and Punishment Redux?

This book interrogates Conservative government penal policy for adult and young adult offenders in England and Wales between 2015 and 2021. Government penal policy is shown to have been often ineffective and costly, and to have revived efforts to push the system towards a disastrous combination of austerity, outsourcing and punishment that has exacerbated the penal crisis. This investigation has meant touching on topical debates dealing with the impact of resource scarcity on offenders' experiences of the penal system, the impact of an increasing emphasis on punishment on offenders' sense of justice and fairness, the balance struck between infection control and offender welfare during the government handling of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and why successive Conservative governments have intransigently pursued a penal policy that has proved crisis-exacerbating. The overall conclusion reached is that penal policy is too important to be left to governments alone and needs to be recalibrated by a one-off inquiry, complemented by an on-going advisory body capable of requiring governments to 'explain or change'. The book is distinctive in that it provides a critical review of penal policy change, whist combining this with insights derived from the sociological analysis of penal trends. Christopher David Skinns is an independent commentator. He has a long-standing interest in penal policy, first stimulated by his work with young offenders immediately after graduating. After completing postgraduate degrees at Sheffield University, UK, and Cambridge University, UK, he went on to further develop this interest by teaching criminology in higher education. He completed a PhD at Hull University, UK. After retiring from university teaching, he began work with the Independent Monitoring Board for Prisons Acknowledgements Contents List of Tables 1: Introduction Introduction References, 2: Critique Introduction The ‘Penal Philosophy’ of the Conservative Governments in the 2015–2021 Period The Nature of the Penal Crisis The Constituents of the Penal Crisis: Material and Moral Deficits Conclusion References 3: Courts and Sentencing Introduction Key Conservative Government Sentencing Policies 2015–2020: Internal Critique Court Administration Maintaining the Legal Aid Austerity Regime ‘Transforming’ Courts Outsourcing Financial Penalty Debt Enforcement Sentencing ‘Toughening’ Custodial Sentencing Reducing the Extent of Automatic Early Prison Release for Some Serious Offenders Lengthening Prison Sentences for Some Serious Offenders Lengthening Prison Sentences for Terrorist and Other Serious Offenders Extending Whole-Life Sentences for Child Murderers De Facto Harsher Custodial Sentencing The Retention of Short Prison Sentences ‘Toughening’ Community Sentencing Preserving the Punitive Status Quo Introducing More Punitive and Incapacitative Measures Sobriety Tags Global Positioning System (GPS)-Enabled Electronic Monitoring The Rehabilitation of Community and Suspended Sentence Order Treatment Requirements Financial Impositions Conservative Government Sentencing Policies 2015–2020: An External Critique Material Crisis: 2015–2020 Moral Crisis: 2015–2020 Conclusion References 4: Prisons Introduction The ‘Transformation’ of the Prison Estate The ‘New for Old’ Policy The Expansion of Prison Places The ‘Transformation’ of the Organisation and Operation of Prisons Marketising Prisons and Prison Services at Any Cost? Increasing Prison Staffing The Key Worker Scheme (KWS) Prisoner Reform and the Provision of Purposeful Activity Control and Security The ‘Transformation’ of Prison External Scrutiny Arrangements Conservative Government Prisons Policy 2015–2020: An External Critique Material Crisis: 2015–2020 Moral Crisis: 2015–2020 Conclusion References 5: Probation Introduction Conservative Governments and the Probation Outsourcing Disaster Government Responses to the Prison Recall Debacle Government Responses to the Through-the-Gate (TTG) Services Debacle Government Attempts to Improve the Community Sentence/Suspended Sentence Order Practice Tougher Smarter Reformative Probation—External Critique Material Crisis: 2015–2020 Moral Crisis Conclusion References 6: Bias and Discrimination in the Penal System Introduction Regulatory Framework Social Context Socio-economic Disadvantage and the Penal System ‘Race’ and the Penal System Reference Document Responses to the Lammy Report Emergence of the ‘Job Done’ Approach Race Bias in the Penal System to March 2020 Women Reference Document Corston: 10 Years On Corston: 13 Years On Socio-economic, Racial and Gender-Based Bias and the Penal Crisis Conclusion References 7: The Pandemic and the Penal System Introduction The Pandemic and England and Wales The Spread of the Virus in England and Wales Government Policy and the Pandemic in England The Response of the Westminster Government to the Pandemic in England 2020–2021 The Pandemic and the Penal System: The Government Response Courts The ‘Emergency Response’ or Exceptional Delivery Model (EDM) The Criminal Courts Recovery Plan The Impact of the Exceptional Delivery Models and Recovery Plans on Existing Court Policies The Impact of the Pandemic Policies on Courts: Internal and External Critique Prisons The Threat of New Coronavirus to Prisons Measuring COVID-19 Spread in Prisons: Infections and Deaths The Exceptional Delivery Model in Prisons: De facto ‘Closure’ The Recovery of Prisons? The Impact of the Pandemic Measures on Existing Prison Policies The Overall Success of the Government’s Prison Pandemic Response in Its Own Terms and How It Impacted on the Penal Crisis Probation The Exceptional Delivery Model (EDM) and Probation The Probation Recovery Plan The Impact of the Pandemic Management on Existing Probation Policies The Overall Success of the Probation Pandemic Response in the Governments’ Own Terms and How It Impacted on the Penal Crisis Bias, the Pandemic and the Penal System Conclusion References 8: Why Has the Penal Crisis Been Exacerbated by Recent Government Policy? Introduction ‘Contested’ and ‘Hegemonic’ Neo-liberalism 1979–2008 Broader Context: Ternary Regime and the Vanquishment of the Offender: Pre-eighteenth Century Broader Context: Proprietarian Regime and Disciplining of the Offender: Mid-Eighteenth Century—1910 Broader Context: Social Democracy and the ‘Penal Welfare Sanction’ (Garland 1985): 1910–1980 Immediate Context: The Neo-proprietarian ‘Counter-Revolution of the Rich’, The Frugality-Outsourcing-Punishment (F-O-P) Penal Policy Package and the Emergence of the Penal Crisis: 1979–2008 Neo-proprietarian Inequality Regimes, ‘Zombie’ Neo-liberalism, the A-O-P Policy Package and the Penal Crisis: 2008–2021 Challenges to ‘Hegemonic’ and the Emergence of ‘Zombie’, Neo-liberalism ‘Zombie’ Neo-liberalism, the Emergence of the A-O-P Penal Policy Package and the Penal Crisis The Re-birth, Hybridisation or Death of Neo-proprietarian Inequality Regimes and Their Justifying Ideologies and the Implications for Penal Policy and the Penal Crisis Scenario 1: Neo-proprietarian and Neo-liberal Re-birth Scenario 2: Neo-proprietarian Inequality Linked to Neo-liberal Populism Scenario 3: Populist Authoritarian Nationalism Conclusion References 9: What Is to Be Done? Introduction The Harms of the Current Neo-proprietarian Inequality Regime Social and Political Agenda Penal Agenda Urgent Questions for the Proposed PCI and the Standing Advisory Body on the Penal System Courts Prisons Probation Conclusion References 10: Conclusion Introduction The Penal Landscape 2010–2021 Limitations of the Book Key Research Questions Conclusion: Do We Really Want to Be ‘the Saudi Arabia of penal policy’? References Index