Commenting on the publication by the Prison Service of performance ratings, Juliet Lyon, director the Prison Reform Trust said:

“These tables raise more questions than they answer.

For hospitals and schools there is patient choice and parent power, neither prisoners and their families nor the courts have a say in where people go or what happens to them when they get there.

Will naming and shaming prisons in this way provide the public with any more information or will it simply put overstretched staff under greater pressure?

Prisons are publicly accountable institutions and these league tables fail to show for example how much purposeful activity each prison provides or whether it succeeds in its aim to resettle people.

It is time the government realized that the way to improve conditions in our prisons and to provide constructive regimes is to reduce the record numbers that are being crammed into jails across the country.”

Notes:

1. On 18th July 2003 the prison population in England and Wales stood at 73,922. This is an increase of 6,752 in the last  two years.

2. At the end of June 85 of the 138 prisons in England and Wales were overcrowded.

3. Drawing on Home Office figures, The Prison Reform Trust will be publishing a detailed analysis of the Prison Service’s performance against its key peformance indicators next month.