Ramsbotham attacks prison cuts 'folly'

Sir David Ramsbotham, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, has attacked the Treasury for its "folly" in demanding a one per cent saving on the prisons' budget, saying it could cause an increase in re-offending.

The proposed cuts were short-sighted, said Sir David, who last week criticised the poor state of Feltham, west London, one of Britain's young offenders institutions, for being plagued by the "negative and malign attitude of the prison officers' union".

Stressing that one young offenders institution had reduced re-offending to 20 per cent by giving inmates a full range of activities, Sir David warned that the cuts could lead to re-offending rates rising overall to 80 per cent, the average in similar institutions.

"So where is the sense in the Treasury demanding automatic efficiency savings of one per cent per year when the number of prisoners is increasing, and more and more of them have to be left locked up, doing nothing?" he said.

In the parliamentary journal, The House Magazine, he writes: "The cost of crime is prohibitive. Prisons, at around £2bn per year, are expensive. But, if prisons do not protect the public, because 55 per cent of adult prisoners re-offend within two years, the public needs to ask whether it is getting value for its money."

Sir David also called for the "spend-to-save" measure of setting up more prison places to enable prisoners to serve their sentences closer to home.