Clash over the Titans

The Government is consulting on proposals for three new 'titan prisons' based on its projection that the prison population will rise to over 95,000 by 2014. The Government aims to have the first titan prison operational by 2012. The three locations for the titans will be London, the West Midlands and the north-west, where available prison places are currently outweighed by demand.

New Labour came to power promising to be "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime". Since then it has overseen a massive rise in the prison population from 60,000 in 1997 to over 80,000 today. The UK now locks up more people than any other European country.

Each titan prison will provide 2,500 prison places, which the consultation paper states will be through five 500-place units within a single perimeter. Brian Caton, General Secretary of the Prison Officers Association, said "we are not affecting many of the people we are releasing . . . because of overcrowding". Yet, overcrowding is already built into these designs. The Ministry of Justice states that in fact titans will provide "2,100 uncrowded places, with the capacity to hold up to 2,500 prisoners through planned overcrowding".

The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, states that the proposals are "flying in the face of our, and others' evidence, that smaller prisons work better than large ones. They may be more efficient, but at the cost of being less effective."

The large sites required to build titans (a minimum of 50 acres) have also raised concerns that the locations will be remote and will therefore hinder access for prisoners' families – a key component of rehabilitation. Harry Fletcher of the National Association of Probation Officers states that all the evidence is "for smaller units close to where prisoners live". Sarah Salmon, assistant director of Action for Prisoners' Families, is concerned that, "titan prisons will result in more prisoners being held further from home, making it harder for them to maintain family contact. And that will impact on levels of re-offending."

In the consultation paper, the Prisons Minister states that "prisons are the right place for the most serious and dangerous offenders" – but around 15% of the prison population is serving a sentence of less than one year, and only 9% is serving a life sentence, as BBC figures show. The Prison Reform Trust states that "community punishments have been proven to be often more effective than short prison sentences".

You can debate prisons policy online on the Justice Select Committee online inquiry: Justice Reinvestment – which allows you to debate criminal justice system costs. The Howard League points out that "the government says that each new titan prison will cost some £390 million for the land and the build. For this we could have 13 brand new secondary schools or four big new hospitals with 4,000 beds AND 122 new operating theatres".

The consultation document 'Titan prisons' can be downloaded from the Ministry of Justice website. The deadline for responses is 28th August 2008.

The commercial generation?

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has opened a new consultation 'Assessing the Impact of the Commercial World on Children's Wellbeing - A Call for Evidence'. The DCSF states that "Some evidence suggests that the combination of a lowering in the age at which children begin to engage with the commercial world, along with an increase in the quantity of commercial messages targeted at children, may have some outcomes which are detrimental for children's wellbeing".

However, the DCSF states, the "evidence is not clear. In particular, there is a gap in understanding properly the impact that cumulative exposure to shopping, advertising and commercial messaging may have on children’s wellbeing". And so it needs your help, and by 30th June.

The Advertising Standards Agency states that common issues surrounding children and advertising are:

• Making children desire things they cannot afford or would not be able to use
• Pester power: encouraging children to pester their parents for advertised products or services.
• Showing children in unsafe or dangerous situations that other kids might emulate.
• Making children feel inferior, especially if they don’t buy the products or services shown in the ads.
• Showing children in a sexual way. I.e. wearing make-up and glamorous clothes
• Advertising soft drinks & high fat / sugar foods to children

There is plenty of evidence available that an impact is being had. The Children’s Society has conducted a 'Good Childhood Inquiry' which looks at the impact of a commercial world on children including that "Nine in ten agreed with the statement that 'children nowadays are more materialistic than past generations'" – Children’s Society’s Good Childhood Inquiry and the same proportion that "advertising to children at Christmas puts pressure on parents to spend more than they can really afford". The Inquiry also asks about video games, junk food advertising and other impacts of commercialism on children.

A more materialistic society and commercialised world also has consequences as social relationships are reduced to economic ones, and children compete rather than co-operate and share. Last year a UNICEF study put the UK, along with the US, at the bottom ranking on children's well-being. Among its findings was that "the percentage of children who report that their peers are 'kind and helpful' varies from a high of 80 percent or more in Switzerland and Portugal to less than 50 percent in the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom".

In early June it was reported that for the second year running, the number of children living in poverty has increased. As Barnardo's states, "a third of children in poverty in the UK go without meals, or toys, or clothes that they need".

Details of the consultation 'Assessing the Impact of the Commercial World on Children's Wellbeing - A Call for Evidence' can be downloaded from the DCSF website, and the deadline for responses is 30th June. There is a version of the consultation for children, parents and for interested parties.