Prison numbers should be halved, senior politicians say

Three senior politicians have called for a radical reshaping of the UK's prisons and the number of inmates to be cut in half – less than a week after riots at HMP Birmingham.

Jacqui Smith, the Labour former home secretary, Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem former deputy prime minister, and Ken Clarke, the Conservative former home secretary and justice secretary, made the call in a letter to The Times, saying that the UK's current prisoner numbers of 85,000 should be cut to their 1980s level of around 45,000.

"To restore order, security, and purpose to our jails, ministers should now make it their policy to reduce prison numbers," they write.

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"We want to see the prison population returned to the levels it was under Margaret Thatcher, herself no 'soft touch'."

Speaking BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, Clegg blamed a "prison works" approach he said dated back to the policies of Conservative home secretary Michael Howard in the early 1990s.

Combined with attitudes of later governments, he said, this had led to a drastic rise in prison populations and created an "overcrowded, large, dangerous and crucially ineffective prison system".

He added: "I think what people are increasingly appreciating is the test of an effective criminal justice system is what keeps the public most safe and actually locking up – warehousing - increasingly large numbers of people in very, very dangerous conditions, only to see them go out and commit crime again, is not the way to keep society safe."

Last week, prisoners in privately-run wings of HMP Birmingham rioted for more than 12 hours last week after a set of keys was snatched from a guard. Stairwells were set on fire and paper records destroyed.

Specialist squads had to be called in to handle the unrest. Repair costs could run to £2 million, the BBC says, and all locks will be replaced.

The Daily Telegraph says the riot "shows what happens when ministers cut prisons to the bone".

Prison staffing levels have been cut from 25,000 in 2010 to 18,000 now, The Guardian reports.