Building prisons in England and Wales the bigger the better?

25 Building prisons in England and Wales: the bigger, the better?
have undergone little or no discussion. They will be built miles
from the services that prisoners need to access upon release, and
the prisoners in them (like the prisoners in most jails) will have to
rely on redundant communication methods that will make services
even more difficult to access…It is hard to believe that if we, as a
society, really took the National Offender Management System’s
aim of rehabilitation seriously we would still build such prisons…
(...)
One only has to look at the latest Inspectorate report to see that
smaller prisons are far more desirable and are proven to work
better. HMCIP notes:
Evidence shows that small prisons perform better than large ones.
This year’s inspections show that large prisons are more likely to
be unsafe and to need to rely more on force. More in-depth
research … shows that taking into account other variables, size is
the most influential predictor of performance against the tests of
safety and respect and overall that resettlement is best provided in
prisons close to home. These findings should underpin planning
for the future of the prison estate. They reinforce concerns about
the proposed huge Titan prisons and support the approach taken
in the Corston report for smaller custodial settings where needed.
The PRT briefing noted above, Titan Prisons: a gigantic mistake,
also cites powerful survey evidence as to the superiority of smaller
prisons over larger prisons. Using unpublished Inspectorate data
the PRT found that of the 154 prisons surveyed during 2006/07,
large institutions were significantly less effective at ‘meeting
prisoners needs and creating a healthy prison environment’.
In two-thirds of the factors compared (102 out of 154) smaller
prisons scored significantly better than large ones. In 38 of the
102 areas, the disparity exceeded ten percentage points. For 19 of
the 24 factors concerning safety, small local prisons scored
significantly better. For resettlement, small locals were better for
18 out of 28 compared and were worse for only one.
The report also cited the experience of France, where Europe’s
largest prison – Fleury-Merogis – holds 3,600 prisoners. The
French government was said to have decided against any more
such prisons, in favour of smaller prisons holding 600 to 700
prisoners. 74
In an article for Criminal Justice Matters, Andrew Coyle (professor of
Prison Studies at King’s College London and a former prison governor)
remarked that Lord Carter’s approach had been to focus on making
existing practices more efficient, rather than questioning the practices
themselves. Yet, he suggested, it had already been acknowledged that
the apparently unstoppable rise in the prison population had to be
halted at some point. 75 Professor Coyle noted that the construction
companies who build prisons, perhaps motivated by commercial
interest, argued that “big is beautiful” but, if rehabilitation was the aim,
then prisoners ought to be held in smaller prisons closer to their homes
and sources of support.
74
Centre for Social Justice, Locked Up Potential, March 2009: pages 97-9
75
Andrew Coyle 'Taking Gods' name in vain: Carter mark 3', Criminal Justice Matters,
71: 1, 2008: pages 20-1