Rehabilitation of Offenders (Amendment) Bill [HL]

Lord Judd Excerpts

Friday 21st January 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Judd]

My Lords, it is a real privilege to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Doocey. Her maiden speech will, I think, rate with some of the most respected in the history of the House. We are fortunate to have someone with her experience joining us. Her experience in local government and her experience in the London Assembly, which she now chairs, are highly relevant to our work here and can contribute much. Her business experience also is important. But what I like is the fact that she has chosen this debate for her maiden speech. It speaks of a tradition of liberal humanitarianism which is a very important quality in our democratic political system, one which many of us in other parts of the political structure of this country have always admired and to which we have frequently related. She has represented that well in what she has said today and also in her practical commitment to having effective arrangements and policies in place to further that kind of commitment.

I understand that with her family background she loves theatre, which is the mark of a very civilised person. But I also understand that she likes listening to easy music. I hope that we may provide some theatrical and, if not actually putting it to music, good listening for her in her experience in this House. I wish the noble Baroness well and I think that we shall benefit from her presence.

I am very glad to speak in support of the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, at this Second Reading. The noble Lord has stuck with perseverance and commitment to this particular legislation, but that is only part of a consistent and admirable general approach to social and penal policy. I should like to repeat what I have just said about the noble Baroness in her maiden speech. I always feel that the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, is an epitome of liberal humanitarianism at its best being applied practically. That liberal humanitarianism is very special and it is something to which I say without hesitation that over our political lives many of us in my political party have always related as well as admired, and may it be preserved in the political future.

I have always felt that any sane and relevant penal policy must have rehabilitation as its overriding, unqualified principal objective. This matters because it makes economic sense. The noble Baroness spoke about getting people back into the labour market, but it also matters because of the cost of reoffending if we do not get rehabilitation right. It is absolute madness not to have rehabilitation at the centre of our purpose in penal policy.

I was deeply moved by the remarks of the right reverend Prelate in this debate. He spoke not only of the labour market and its place in the economy, he spoke of people and of people mattering. It seems to me that in a civilisation that is worth the title “civilised”, we should be concerned about every individual who faces imprisonment and should be second to none in our determination to see those individuals, wherever possible, becoming full, flourishing members of society. It matters that they should be able to live creatively and positively.

Other people have given personal anecdotes. I should like to refer to two conversations that I have had in this context, which have deeply influenced me since they took place. I may have referred to them previously in deliberations to the House, but I think that they bear repetition. One conversation was with a retired chief constable who very modestly was doing a lot of practical voluntary work in a young offender institution. He told me of a conversation that he had with a young man who was coming up to the time of his release. As they were talking, the young man began to cry. The former chief constable was rather thrown and disturbed by this. He said, “But you are coming up to your release, why are you crying?”. The young man said, “I am crying because the work being done by you and others in this young offender institution is the first time that I have felt in my life that I mattered. It is the first time that I have begun to discover myself and to face the realities of what I could be and of what I have allowed myself to do in the past. I am frightened of what will happen when I come out of this community back into society”. The former chief constable and I pondered that. Going back to what the right reverend Prelate said, it seems to me that every time we see someone in prison we have to ask ourselves how far we are responsible for that sad situation, because it is a sad situation to see someone in prison.

As a society we have a responsibility, and while of course it is not always the case, we have to realise that many people who are incarcerated are themselves victims, and that is why they are there. This applies particularly to those in young offender institutions. They are highly damaged people in terms of their own experience. When I visited prisons and young offender institutions, and heard about someone’s experience and how they had been treated in life, I sometimes thought that it would have been an absolute miracle if they had not ended up in prison.

I also recall how a much-loved colleague, the late Baroness Lestor, a close personal friend and godmother to one of my children, had been to visit the young people involved in the terrible murder of James Bulger in Liverpool. I had never seen Joan—I refer to her affectionately as “Joan”—more disturbed and deeply upset. She said of one, “I came to realise that this young man had never been loved in his life”. That brings home to us all our collective responsibility. The Bill is a practical and important part of getting things right because, as things are on this front, they are clearly not in harmony with the wider purposes we are spelling out.

The other conversation was with a chief superintendent of police who was coming up to his retirement. He said, “You know, Frank, as I reflect on my experience of working with criminals, one thing I have always felt is that when a person is sent down to prison, however much the bravado and bluster on their part, it is a very lonely moment in their life. To get it right as a policeman, I have come to the conclusion that that is the moment when someone should be there and gently take their elbow, saying, ‘Come on Joe or Jill. This is a hell of a mess. How do we begin to sort it out and get it right?’”. If we are going to get penal policy right, we need to realise that it is not just a matter of having the right administration or the right pieces in place in terms of treatment, it is about love and friendship and having relationships because they are crucial to the whole process of rehabilitation. There need to be friends who can walk with people through the experience of imprisonment, into rehabilitation and then back into the full and creative life we hope to see them fulfilling.

Because of my general orientation on this, naturally I am delighted to see the new trend in government policy. Also, if I may put it this way, I am glad to see that my old but mis-seated colleague and friend the noble Lord, Lord McNally, is to reply to the debate. I often reflect on the days when the noble Lord and I worked quite closely together, I as a Minister of State in the Foreign Office and he at No. 10. I am just reminiscing, but I remember how, through a little conspiracy together, we once saved the budget for the BBC Overseas Service. So I am very sad to see him where he is at the moment, but I must not go down that road.

One thing which worries me about the new proposals is that they are so often presented—I think that the noble Lord, Lord McNally, if he will forgive me for saying so, has sometimes done it, although I understand the pressures which make it necessary—as saving money. I have just put forward that argument myself: if you get rehabilitation right, you will save money; you will save the cost of reoffending and the rest. However, we must not let this become a Treasury policy as distinct from a policy about rehabilitation, because rehabilitation will not be a cheap option. We have not yet begun to face up to the real costs of making this enlightened and sensible policy a success. We must have the psychiatric services, the housing advisory services, the medical services, the educational arrangements and other practical arrangements in place, with, I hope, someone walking with the individual through the handling of all these different pressures and arrangements. That will be an expensive process. We cannot just say, “Well, we’re going to run a pilot scheme and we’ve got various voluntary agencies piling in”. Having spent much of my life in the voluntary sector, I know that voluntary agencies may have a very important part to play, but how satisfied are we that all the people involved, however sincere and highly motivated, have the training, experience and professionalism to do the job well? I remember what happened with lunatic asylums. It was thought that it was a terrible thing still to have such institutions and that the people concerned should be rehabilitated in society. The arrangements were not made, and we saw as a result many personal, collective and family tragedies.

Above all, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, on another practical manifestation of his lifelong commitment to getting penal policy right.