We welcome Gaby Hinsliff’s call for “a more enlightened approach to cutting crime” (Republican Texas is a surprising model for solving the UK’s prison crisis – but it just might work, 16 May). To achieve this and deal with the problem of prison overcrowding, we do not need to build more prisons. Community sentences require more resources so they can constructively challenge offending behaviour while keeping convicted individuals in touch with their responsibilities to families and communities.
For those in prison, this would also allow for the application of the Texas model – a promising form of prison reform that is not only cost-saving but has also reduced crime and recidivism rates in that state. Its success lies significantly in prioritising incarceration for violent offences.
It also emphasises in-prison and community-based treatment programmes for non-violent offenders, many of whose crimes intersect with substance abuse and/or mental health problems.
Several other US states have found the Texas model fits with their wish to curtail prison numbers without jeopardising public safety.
Maurice Vanstone
Emeritus professor of criminology and criminal justice, Swansea University
Anita Kalunta-Crumpton
Professor of administration of justice, Texas Southern University
Philip Priestley Independent scholar
• As welcome as it is that the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has acknowledged the prison crisis, her solutions treat symptoms, not causes (Jail time for recalled offenders to be limited to free up prison places, 14 May). Limiting recall periods to 28 days may provide temporary relief, but the admission that prisons in England and Wales will still be 9,000 places short by 2028 exposes the futility of building our way out of this crisis.
We cannot continue this cycle of emergency releases and quick fixes. The government must prioritise evidence-based alternatives: community sentences, electronic monitoring and intensive supervision programmes that cost less and reduce reoffending more effectively than prison.
Most importantly, we need investment in prevention – addressing the social determinants of crime through education, mental health services and employment support. The current approach is both financially unsustainable and morally bankrupt.
James Stoddart
Project coordinator, the Oswin Project
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