BBC drama, Time, exposes moribund nature of prison system but to the public want to hear?

The brilliant drama Time about a young persons detention centre raises questions about incarceration and the criminal justice system. Written by Jimmy McGovern, starring David Tennant and Siobhan Finneran, Time brings home the violence and terror of prison.The understaffing, means the prisoners end up locked in cells for 23 hours a day. This exasperates many already underlying problems. Efforts to rehabilitate, such as literacy provision go by the way side. The staff are on the edge, becoming more violent themselves This is the third series of Time, the first focusing on adult male prison, the second adult female prison and now the youngsters.This final series is possibly the most hard hitting. It is often a difficult watch but fantastic drama, with McGovern's brilliant writing highlighting an important contemporary issue. Finneran's character, chaplain, Sister sounds Marie Louise, is the only one to appear in all three series. She offers a beacon of hope for the prisoners. In this final series, she has lost her faith after an affair with a Catholic priest. The affair is ended, after pressure from the hierarchy. She suggests the head chaplain may not want her now she has lost her faith. But he responds saying she is needed now more than ever. Tennant puts in a great performance as Bobby Bailey, tortured at work, whilst his private life is also in turmoil. He faces the dilemma of doing the right moral thing in telling the truth or colluding in a cover up for a colleague. The moment on the second episode, where stretched to the limit, Bailey is left to look after a whole wing because his fellow officer has pulled a sickie, is particularly powerful. The icing on the cake comes when he confronts Freddie Jennings (Daniel Ryan). at the golf course, rather than on his sick bed. Jennings is another torn individual, with some good intentions but overcome in the end by the need for self preservation. There are several excellent performances from those playing the young offenders. Chukwubuikem Molokwu as murdered inmate Christopher/Ushindi and Ollie McNulty, as Peter, a conscience stricken member of a murder gang, are particularly outstanding in their TV acting debuts. Again, potentially decent people if given the chance to show it. That opportunity is only occasionally seen, then snatched away, as most become overcome by the need to survive in what amounts to a jungle with few rules. The moral dilemmas mount up, with some redemption found in the end. The concern, though, is that despite such drama and other documentaries, the public understanding of crime and punishment seems to have changed little. The populist belief seems to be that offenders should be locked away for as long as possible - out of sight, out of mind. Note, the frankly ludicrous outcry over the recent decision to release some prisoners early to make space in the prisons for more inmates. The early releases will have made little difference to the offenders concerned. The point missed amid the public clamour to keep people locked up is that the system does not work. The individuals will reoffend because that is what prisoners are bound to do if they are not rehabilitated. Some 30 to 40 per cent of offenders reoffend on release. Prison does not work, it simply makes individuals into better criminals on release. As a former Chief Inspector of Prisons noted sooner or later all but a handful of prisoners will be released and each could be living next door to you or me. It is in everybody's interest to rehabilitate prisoners. But this is not happening. There have been efforts made to cut incarceration by the present government and the previous David Cameron Conservative administration but both have been confounded by media led public outcry. The latest being the reaction to the early release program. The stock response then from the politicians is to promise to build more prisons and incarcerate more people. The countries that incarcerate fewer people, using other methods to punish and rehabilitate in the community are doing better in addressing offending. The present situation, as exposed in Time needs addressing. Building more prisons, locking up more people for longer is no solution. Community based sentences, restorative justice, rehabilitation, valued staff and efforts to address the root causes of what drives crime in the first place are what is needed. There will be mistakes and problems along the way but in the end society will be served much better, than by the present approach of simply warehousing people in increasingly dangerous and volatile institutions. All this leads to, eventually, are prison riots, prisoner suicides and better equipped prisoners being released to commit more crime on the streets. Time to think again and seek a little redemption.