I’m not sure if the sun will ever rise in the east again: Michael Howard has
supported a Ken Clarke prison policy. The Justice Secretary has launched a pilot scheme at
HMP Peterborough that uses private bond investment to fund inmate remedial programmes to cut
re-offending. The Social Impacts Bond will provide £5million to produce £8million over the course of six years, assuming the scheme is a success.
The situation required boldness. For once tabloid melodrama is accurate: reoffending is the scourge of our times and its incidence has risen steadily over the last decade. According to Dame Anne Owers, the former chief inspector of prisons, one cause is that remedial funding did not keep pace with the 27 percent increase in prison numbers between 1997-2007. What money there is for inmate education, mental health schemes and resettlement work is to be cut.
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