Prisons in the United Kingdom were ordered to stop referring to criminals as “clients” or “residents” on Wednesday.
The “style guide for prison communications” orders prison and probation staff to refer to criminals as “prisoners, people in prison or offenders” and never to refer to prison cells as “rooms.” Justice Secretary Dominic Raab announced the guidelines at a meeting with senior prison and probation figures in response to concerns that the less-offensive terms were damaging confidence in the justice system, according to the Daily Mail.
“The Justice Secretary is determined that our prisons up their game in rehabilitating prisoners to drive down re-offending, cut crime and protect the public,” a government source said. “But wishy-washy, politically correct phrases like ‘room’ or ‘client’ dent public confidence in our ability both to reform and to punish those who have broken the law and caused harm to others. The Justice Secretary believes in calling a prisoner a prisoner.”
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Prison officers had expressed concern about the previous change in language in referring to criminals as “clients,” saying it sends mixed messages. Solicitor General Alex Chalk insisted in May 2021 that staff must not “pretend that these people are angels residing in a cell out of choice.”
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San Francisco’s board of supervisors approved “person-first” guidelines in 2019 for referring to people with a criminal record, dropping words such as “felon,” “offender,” “convict,” and “addict,” as well as changing the phrase “juvenile delinquent” to “young person with justice system involvement” or “young person impacted by the justice system,” according to ABC7.
