Ken Clarke meets prison governors over plans to make 'idle' inmates work full-time

Justice Secretary Ken Clarke will take questions from prison governors today after unveiling plans to force inmates out of bed and into full-time work.

Too many prisoners existed in a system where getting out of bed was "voluntary" and instead they should change their life of "enforced, bored idleness" for nine to five jobs to gain a trade or skill, Mr Clarke told the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham last week.

But prison governors warned his plans "will not come without cost" and risk taking jobs away from law-abiding citizens.

The proposals, while laudable, would require massive investment in prisons at a time when budgets are being slashed and, while captive, inmates were "generally reluctant to engage in meaningful work", the Prison Governors Association said.

Mr Clarke, who will address the PGA annual conference in Buxton, Derbyshire, today, also backs replacing short jail terms with community punishments as part of his rehabilitation revolution.

In a survey out today, 81% of prison governors disagreed that "short prison sentences serve to reform and rehabilitate the offender", while only 6% agreed.

The online poll of more than 200 current and retired PGA members, carried out by the Howard League for Penal Reform, also found three in four governors considered the current use of short prison sentences between zero and six months to be "excessive".

PGA president Eoin McLennan-Murray said its members passed a resolution over the ineffectiveness of short-term sentences last year.

"Now, 12 months on we have a coalition Government who are looking to use community punishments instead of short sentences," he said.

"Potentially this could reduce the prison population by about 7,000."