Sending rough sleepers to prison comes at a huge cost to the public purse. here’s how that cash could help instead

ROUGH SLEEPING

Designed to replace the Napoleonic-era Vagrancy Act, the Conservative government’s Criminal Justice Bill criminalises rough sleepers and raises the prospect of them being sent to prison. Nuisance begging and nuisance rough sleeping could result in a one-month prison sentence. Imprisoning someone doesn’t help people experiencing homelessness either, with 39% of people released from prison going on to reof-fend. But it’s also expensive.

So let’s take a look at how that money could be put to better use.

What does it cost to send someone to prison?

The process of imprisoning someone – police and court costs – typically costs £65,000, according to estimates from Focus Prison Education.

Once inside, the estimated cost of a prison place is £47,434 per year, according to government figures for 2021-22, or around £3,500 a month. Taken together, some back-of-the-envelope maths suggests we’re looking at £68,500 to lock someone up for a month.

What support could you offer for £68,500? Well, you could end homelessness for an individual. Rough sleeping isn’t an intractable problem and Crisis ran the numbers on three specific options, suited to the needs of different people. All are cheaper than sending someone to prison.

Housing First support

At the heart of Housing First is the idea that if you give someone a stable home, they have a platform to start from. Politicians have been taking the lead from Finland, where the concept has been introduced to acclaim. Instead of jumping over hurdles, rough sleepers are given a home.

Crisis estimates this will help 30% of rough sleepers at a cost of £12,250 per person per year in 2017 money, or £15,667 when accounting for inflation. Housing First lasts as long as people need it, but typically it’s two years before they can move on to other less intense kinds of support, taking the rough cost to £31,334.

Instead of putting one person behind bars, as the Criminal Justice Bill proposes, we could implement Housing First for two people. Here’s the kicker: it’s spending