Did you know that our prisons are doing better than ever?

That's what the latest re-offending statistics say. That just as the prison system descended into the worst crisis in a generation, post Grayling, prisons were doing their job better and better:

Adult proven re-offending rate, %

It is high time we question the current assumption that changes in the re-offending rate measure the performance of the prison or probation services. Plainly,  they do not, or at least, they don't measure marginal changes in any reliable way. Any more than changes in the crime rate measure the performance of the police. 

We must therefore ditch the ideological-driven nonsense of  payment by results (PBR), not least  because it is is likely to reward the CRCs which are failing so badly according to many inspection  reports, including the recent coruscating one on 'Through the gate' services, see my last article -  and which would collapse altogether, had not the MoJ agreed to stuff more money into them, quite irrespective of what results they achieve. 

Not such much payment by  results as money for old rope.