Just thinking
"This is a unique time for putting things on the table that have previously been unpalatable": the words of a Whitehall mandarin involved in shaping government policy on sentencing and prisons.
The rotunda of HMP Manchester
It is clear that Ken Clarke has been emboldened by the fact that the sky didn't fall in when he suggested that "just banging up more and more people for longer" was too often "a costly and ineffectual approach".
While his calls for "intelligent sentencing, seeking to give better value for money" have alarmed some on the right of his party, I understand that the department has taken heart from polling data which suggests the general public response has been broadly relaxed.
The phrase "prison doesn't work", certainly in terms of short-term sentences, is tacitly accepted inside the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) as officials prepare for what the Conservatives have dubbed their "rehabilitation revolution".
My senior civil-servant source stressed that "this government is dedicated to evidence-based policy" and that the consultation on the future of penal policy due to start at the end of October or early November will begin with "a page of facts" about the criminal justice system. The hope is that they can stage a rational rather than emotional debate about the management of offenders.
If this all sounds dangerously liberal to some, it was emphasised to me that policy discussions consider three aspects: cost effectiveness, public opinion and the principle of justice. That said, it is the first of those criteria that is the key driver in departmental deliberations.
Ministers are very excited about the potential of using private investors to deliver criminal justice services on the basis of payment by results. Last week the MoJ began a pilot of so-called Social Impact Bonds at Peterborough prison, the first scheme of its type in the world.
Over six years, £5m invested in the bonds will be used to work with around 3,000 short-term prisoners. If the social enterprise can reduce re-offending sufficiently, the investors stand to make a £3m profit. If they fail, as on The Weakest Link, they leave with nothing.
There is some departmental concern, I am told, that if social bonds do become the norm for service delivery, budgeting becomes extremely tricky. In the current climate it is unlikely that ministers will agree to large contingency funds in case results exceed expectations.
But the principle is a perfect fit for a government that wants to shrink the state and develop the "Big Society". "We will simply specify the outcomes we want and how much we are prepared to pay," my source explained. Concern that an absence of targets combined with light-touch government might mean "variable justice" is dismissed.
The more one learns of what is going on in Whitehall at the moment, the clearer it becomes that this is a remarkably radical government. While the effects of public-sector cuts preoccupy the headline writers, behind the scenes the building blocks are being put in place for the most fundamental shift in the relationship between citizen and state since World War II. It is an extraordinary change being conducted at breakneck speed.
Allow me to remind you of some of the key criteria being used to define that process :
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People are waking up to what changes when you ask these questions. Advocates of the Big Society idea are realising the enormity of the moment. Richard Wilson, who heads a project pledged to empower local individuals and communities, has written about the day the penny dropped for him. :
"The location for this enlightenment experience was a room in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire (the Lord works in mysterious ways) with 30 local authority practitioners. I finally realised a simple point. There is no detail. The canvas is blank. This is the profound shift that Pickles, Cameron, Wilcox, Wei and others have been talking about."
When Whitehall mandarins say this is a "unique time" for putting previously "unpalatable" ideas on the table, we'd better believe it.
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