If the Arts Council's cuts were not barbaric in their own right, one sector has been especially heavily hit (Editorial, 31 March). With total budget cuts to Writers in Prison Network and two other award-winning companies, the arts in criminal justice sector has lost three of its six ACE-funded organisations. ACE will continue to work with us for the next year and support our application to other funding, but this in no way replaces what they have taken away.
These arts companies are dedicated to turning people's lives around in prison so that they don't reoffend. Yet ACE has not provided anything to replace them. How does that contribute to the ConDems' policy of the rehabilitation revolution?
A writer's residency in prison costs £20,000 per year. But the average cost of keeping someone in prison for a year is £47,000. How does withdrawing funding to Writers in Prison match up to the ConDems' policy of payment by results?
Clive Hopwood
Director, Writers in Prison Network