How can we ensure that when people leave prisons, they turn their lives around and stay on the outside?

The battle of penal policy and reform rages from both sides of the debate, tripping over themselves to see you can be the toughest and ensure that victims are protected. One of the things that most victims of crime actually want is to not have to experience crime again. It seems very strange that we have a criminal justice system that prevents rehabilitation, blocks progression and stops convicted criminals from having a normal life.

One could argue that once someone commits a crime then they should live with the consequences. However, if we are serious about preventing future victims then we have to address why people continue to do crime in the first place. It was very encouraging to have progressive policies coming from the centre of government, but a real shame that issues are played back and forth like a tennis match.

The treasury is realising that locking up more people is not an effective way of saving money. There is real shock and muted outrage regarding the amount of people with learning disabilities and children in prison. Select committees have focused on the institutional staff culture and defining the working practice. All progressive measures which should be continued as when we stop moving forward, things start to regress. It is like we are pulling on elastic bands – when you stop pulling it reverts back to its original form.

More knowledge needs to be produced around the problems that former prisoners face when returning to the real world and a quality evaluation of how offenders function in the outside world. Revealing and reporting the actual and not the virtual.

Another important area to be scrutinised is the impact of how the cuts will affect penal reform. The ring-fencing of prison education money has been removed and we have to maintain a gold standard rather than just provide a bronze service.

These issues will not go away and continue to cause more problems in the future. Imprisonment is very popular but prisoners are not. 1 in 6 prisoners are serving without release dates in the foreseeable future. Only 130 IPP prisoners have been released since its inception. Containment should not be fit for human beings but for goods and products.

We need to start believing that people and institutions can change but the system has to change as well.