77 per cent of adults arrested for taking part in the August disturbances have a caution or conviction for a previous criminal offence.Justice Secretary Ken Clarke blames the penal system for failing to rehabilitate offenders.
I recall visiting the decaying Victorian gaols such as Wandsworth and Brixton. Prisoners had to defecate into a bucket not so long ago, called "slopping out" when they were emptied. Now the cells have flush toilets but basically, in my view, the prison overcrowding means that prisoners are locked up for long periods without any full scale education, group work or meaningful enterprise.
Drugs are readily available and lots of prisoners end up psychologically fragile, even if they weren't before they went in. I can often see the positive potential in young clients get denuded by ever longer captivity. Institutionalised, they frequently return to "Her Majesty" as they can't seem to adapt to life in their home communities. Pausing to party, procreate and offend en route of course. And so the cycle continues.
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