Parliamentary candidates and their parties need to know that people care about the state of our prisons and the waste of money they represent. Each of us can ask our candidates about what their party will do about our prisons if they win.
You can lobby your candidates in person at hustings, local events or when they are out campaigning. You can also write, email or contact them on social media. Make them work for your vote.
Who Can I Vote For? is a good website to find out who your candidates are.
Here are some questions you can use. Our previous post has more facts and figures.
Questions for Parliamentary Candidates
1. Have you been in [our local prison]? If you're elected will you ask to visit?
Crisis in our criminal justice system
Our prisons are in crisis - overcrowded, no more room, filthy conditions.
2. How is your party going to fix this quickly?
The number of people in prison simply awaiting trial has risen by 45% in just three years. Almost half were accused of non-violent offences. Almost a third have been there for more than 6 months.
3. How will your party tackle the backlog in our courts?
Safer and cheaper
We imprison a higher proportion of people than anywhere else in western Europe. It costs around £50k a year to keep someone in prison and almost 40% reoffend within a year.
4. What are you going to do to make us safer and release more money to spend on other things?
We know that community sentences are better than short sentences in prison at reducing reoffending.
5. Will you support the abolition of custodial sentences of less than one year?
Do prisons work?
Prisons do not keep us safe. Prisoners are likely to be released with drug addiction, unprepared for work , ill-equipped to look after their kids, maybe homeless. Many resort to crime.
6. Will your party give priority to restoring rehabilitation and education programmes in prisons?
Conditions in our prisons
7. Are you ashamed that:
· 3 in 5 men and 4 in 5 women in our prisons are mentally ill?
· drugs are widely available in our prisons?
· prisoners do not get the correct medication on time and miss hospital appointments?
· prisoners can go over a week without a change of underwear?
· our probation service hands out tents to prisoners released from jail?
8. Will you address the scandal of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP)?
9. Will you support a Duty of Candour for those in public service to overcome the secrecy and cover-ups?
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