On Sunday, Bishop Rachel spoke to Caroline Martin on BBC Radio Gloucester, sharing her views on the urgent need for prison reform in the UK.
Her message was clear: the current prison system is failing both offenders and society at large. Without addressing the root causes of crime and rethinking the role of prisons, the system will continue to perpetuate cycles of reoffending and broken communities.
Bishop Rachel said she wanted to make it clear she didn’t condone crime, and there are consequences to criminal behaviour, but called for more to be done to rehabilitate people when they are in prison.
Speaking to Caroline Martin, she argued that punishment alone is not the solution, asking the questions “How do we make our communities stronger, and what are our prisons for?”
She highlighted the widespread belief that longer sentences make streets safer, but noted that evidence does not support this view. Reoffending rates remain alarmingly high, with nearly 50% of released prisoners reoffending within a year, and this figure rises to 80% for those sentenced to less than a year.
She explained that the tax payer often does not realise they are contributing to roughly £50,000 per person per year to put people in prison. At the end of that, there is no transformation or change. It’s costing billions, and it makes no fiscal sense.
She called for a shift in focus from punishment to rehabilitation, arguing for a need for more community sentencing, particularly as an alternative to shorter sentences, which she believes could help offenders confront their issues such as addiction and mental health issues more effectively while strengthening community ties.
Listen to the full programme here →
Bishop Rachel is currently recording a series of Podcasts called – ‘Holding the key: A series of conversations to unlock the door to doing prison differently’. Bishop Rachel will be joined by influencers and change-makers as they ask the questions – what is prison really for and more importantly what could the alternatives be?
Find out more about the series →
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Rehabilitation surely is the way forward for those who are spending time in prison. Trying to turn their lives around would make more sense. Gifts may be discovered that never had been. discovered. Best wishes, @Wendy Roberts.