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Prisons should be payment-by-results

A payment-by-results model should be extended to the operating of prisons, the think tank Policy Exchange has suggested.

Prison bosses should be paid bonuses for meeting reoffending targets if the Government’s plans for rehabilitation are to be a success, it says.

The Policy Exchange report, authored by head of crime and justice, Max Chambers, says the Justice Secretary’s plans to privatise the probation service will only work if prison governors are directly incentivised.

Mr Chambers’ report recommends the creation of prison league tables; abandonment of the Government’s preferred “binary measure” of reoffending, measuring the proportion of offenders in cohort who reoffend; and the introduction of higher tariffs for the most hardened criminals.

The report suggests that without reform of prisons, the public sector service will become detached from the system with “little incentive to participate or cooperate.”

Elsewhere, it is recommended that the Ministry of Justice ensure the role of the voluntary sector as part of supply chains via a similar measure as the Merlin Standard; the standard to which Work Programme providers must adhere.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .