Britain's Prison Addiction and Failing Probation Service Show Prisons Don't Work; Funding Should Shift to Probation and Prevention
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/pollytoynbee. "Britain is addicted to prisons. Our crumbling probation service proves they don’t work | Polly Toynbee | The Guardian." October 16, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
Britain keeps locking up more people even though crime has fallen sharply, and the prisons and probation service are collapsing under the strain. Since the public won't pay for a properly staffed system, the author says the government should keep prison only for the most dangerous and put the money into probation and early prevention.
Conclusion
Britain's reliance on ever-greater imprisonment is a failed approach, so the government should cut prison funding down to housing only the most dangerous offenders and spend instead on what works, such as well-funded probation and early intervention.
Premises
- Prison numbers have risen significantly while violent crime in England and Wales has fallen 78% since 1995, so rising imprisonment is not explained by rising crime.
- The public wrongly believes crime is rising, because media and drama fixation on horrific crime stirs fear, and politicians win votes by promising more punishment.
- The prison and probation system is failing in practice: probation runs on about half the staff needed, with vacancies 25-30% below target, tagging failures, hostel closures, and rising serious further offences by people on probation.
- Prisons themselves fail to prepare inmates for release, with untreated addiction and mental health problems and cuts to education, training and rehabilitation, and new prisons such as HMP Millsike are unsafe and understaffed with cells empty for lack of officers.
- Probation works when officers have time for long-term, trusting relationships with offenders, which is now rare because caseloads are unmanageable.
- Public demand for more imprisonment and supervision will never be matched by willingness to pay the taxes needed to staff the system properly.
Assumptions
- A failing, under-resourced probation and prison system shows that imprisonment as a policy does not work, rather than that it is merely poorly funded or managed.
- The fall in crime is not substantially caused by higher imprisonment (no incapacitation or deterrence effect).
- Resources shifted from prisons to probation and early-years intervention would produce better outcomes than the current spending.
- Only the most dangerous offenders require imprisonment, and others can be safely managed in the community.
- Voters and politicians will not fund the staff and capacity needed to make a larger prison and probation system function.
- The testimony of the union chair and a prison governor is representative of expert opinion.