Most people see prison as appropriate for violent crimes, but attitudes are more mixed in other areas
With overcrowded cells and rising rates of violence and re-offending, the state of UK prisons has become an urgent public policy issue in recent years. As the government prepares to unveil its Spring Sentencing Review, a new YouGov poll explores what the public think of the state of the prison system, priorities for improvement, and whether it is still seen as an appropriate solution for certain crimes.
The public think prisons in the UK need improving, especially when it comes to treating the causes of crime and preparing prisoners for release
Three quarters of Britons (75%) say the prison system is functioning badly, including a third (37%) who see it as functioning “very badly”. This compares to one in eleven (9%) saying it is functioning well, including just 1% saying “very well”.
Looking more specifically at the purposes of prison, the British public are most negative about its current ability to treat the causes of crime, with just 7% saying its functioning well in this area. They feel similarly about how the system currently prepares prisoners for a life without crime upon release, with 8% seeing this as going well.
Likewise, only a minority think the prison system is functioning well at punishing prisoners for their crimes (20%) or protecting the public from dangerous criminals (33%).
Despite thinking the system isn’t working at the moment, Britons still think prison is the most appropriate solution for the most violent crimes, but not necessarily for non-violent ones
With a majority across all areas seeing the prison system as functioning badly, it is clear that the public want to see prisons improved. But do they think prison is the appropriate solution for crimes in the first place?
The overwhelming majority of Britons say prison is the most appropriate course of action for the most serious violent crimes, such as murder (97%), rape (97%), attacking someone with a knife (95%), sexual assault (93%), robbery (92%), domestic violence (85%) and general assault (83%).
When it comes to non-violent crimes, opinion is more mixed. A majority still see prison as appropriate for offences like stalking (63%) and carrying a knife (61%), as well as for white collar crimes like embezzlement (64%) and fraud (57%).
But while 49% see in-person harassment as a crime that could merit a prison sentence, this falls to 31% for online harassment. Likewise, just 30% say prison is appropriate for vandalism, petty theft (18%) or anti-social behaviour (11%).
When it comes to drug offences – which account for the third largest portion of the prison population, according to official figures – transporting or supplying illegal drugs are generally seen as prison-worthy crimes (83% and 81% respectively), but carrying a personal amount or consuming illegal drugs are not (21% and 19% respectively).
Whilst the public generally agree that most license breaches warrant a prison recall, they believe undertaking unapproved work should not
When someone is released from prison, they are placed on ‘license’, which means they must follow certain conditions or risk being returned to prison. Prison recalls are designed to reduce the risk to the public and deter re-offending, but they of course impact prison capacity in a system currently overcrowded. So, what breaches that are currently considered a basis for recall do the public agree with?
Britons are clear that committing another offence should lead to the ex-prisoner being recalled (96%) and a large majority think travelling outside of the UK without permission should too (84%). Most think failing to keep in touch with their supervising officer (77%) and breaching curfew conditions (71%) also should result in a return to prison.
The public are more split on whether failing to update their supervisor of contact detail changes (49%) and staying a night or more at an unapproved address (45%) should result in recall.
The only current recall condition that Britons tend to disagree with is undertaking work not approved by their supervisor, which 50% say should not lead to a return to prison, compared to only 29% who think it should.
Britons say they want to see the government bring in longer, harsher sentences and focus on rehabilitation and reducing the chances of reoffending
It's clear that many Britons view the prison system as failing to fulfil its intended purpose, suggesting a potential disconnect between current policies and public expectations. So, what do people want the government to do?
We asked Britons to tell us in their own words what one thing they would like to see the government do to improve the prison system. When looking down the list, it’s clear that the public can be divided into camps between whether prison should be a harsh place of punishment, or a rehabilitative place to address the causes of crime.
Top of mind for 17% Britons is introducing longer sentences, and ensuring prisoners serve the full sentence they are given; “life means life”, for example. Concurrently, and somewhat in opposition, the same number (17%) say the government should focus on rehabilitation services and preparing prisoners for life after release without re-offending. A further 13% told us they wanted to see more prisons built to house more prisoners, and generally to see solutions to the current overcrowding.
Further on the punishment side, 8% opt for prison to be made a harsher environment to promote deterrence and 4% even say bringing back the death penalty is their number one priority.
In the other camp are preferences for investing in education and work in prisons (5%), addressing drug issues (3%), looking for alternatives to prison (3%), and treating the causes of crime (2%).
A further 3% specifically wanted to see sentences better match the severity of the crime in question. It is worth noting that across the spectrum of answers, harsher, longer prison experiences were often quoted specifically in relation to violent crime, whereas the answers focusing on alternatives to prison were more likely to mention for non-violent or petty crimes.
When presented with priority trade-offs, policies targeting the prevention of crime, improving the prison environment and rehabilitation services are most popular, whereas more lenient sentencing is least popular
Using a randomised conjoint experiment, we examined which policies Britons would MOST like to see brought in to reform how prisons function in the UK. We showed respondents two policies randomly selected out of a possible 25 and asked which they’d prefer. We first asked this pairing five times regarding violent crimes, and then five times regarding non-violent crimes. This method allows us to measure the trade-off priorities of a wide variety of policies, mimicking the possibilities but considering the limited resources and budget of the prison system.
Of all the policies we asked about, investing in support for children vulnerable to crime was the most popular policy direction, followed by investment in purposeful activities within prison. In fact, policies involving improving the prevention of crime and the prison environment were generally the most popular for both violent and non-violent crimes.
More lenient sentencing, either through shorter sentences or increasing the use of early release schemes, was least popular for both violent and non-violent crimes.
There are differences when it comes to increasing the capacity or use of prisons. Here we see the policy more popular for violent crimes, particularly when it comes to increasing the length of prison sentences, decreasing early release schemes, building more prisons, and increasing the use of prison recall.
On the other hand, increasing alternatives to prison, such as increasing the use of community orders or fines, are more popular for non-violent crimes.
Full results for...
- Open question on what one thing Britons would most like to see done on prisons
- Conjoint experiment on preferred prison policies
- All other prisons data cited
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Photo: Getty
