Archbishop pained by number of people in Britains jails

The Archbishop of York has said that more must be done to educate people on being better citizens rather than resorting to imprisonment and heavy sentences as a deterrent to crime.

In a lecture to the Prisoners Education Trust, Dr John Sentamu said that putting people behind bars and handing out longer sentences did nothing to help society or criminals.

“In modern culture, the rights of the individual are now paramount – but you cannot have these rights without obligations and responsibilities,” he said.

“We need to get back to valuing ourselves and our neighbours – and understanding that there is a cost involved when a crime is committed, a cost to the criminal, a cost to the victim and a cost to the community.”

The Archbishop said he was “pained” by the size of Britain’s prison population, currently just over 90,000. He said that many of the prisoners were people who had “given up on community” and felt that the community had also given up on them.

“What we need is to educate people about how they can be better citizens – not encouraging people to turn their back on society, as some sort of perceived underclass,” he said.

Dr Sentamu argued that the stated aim of all justice and penal systems should be reintegration, as he warned that a culture of blame and condemnation led to feelings of alienation in the perpetrator and the victim.

“We need to show love and compassion while ensuring justice is served and seen to be served,” he said.

He praised the work of churches and church initiatives in tackling violent crime in their communities.

Many churches have focused their efforts on addressing the problem of gangs and anti-social behaviour in recent years and Street Pastors and Words 4 Weapons are among the initiatives to have received the praise of community leaders and the police.

Just last week, the Words 4 Weapons project was awarded the Peace Award for Community Engagement. Project founder Michael Smith received the award from Tim Bissett of Church Urban Fund at a ceremony attended by London Mayor Boris Johnson and the Rev Nims Obunge of the Peace Alliance.

The project invites people to hand their knives over in exchange for a bag containing a Bible and information on how to leave gangs and a life of crime.