Dr Williams said overcrowding in prisons lay at the heart of problems

He also accused the three main political parties of "point scoring" in the debate on criminal justice.

The Church of England's General Synod voted to accept a report calling for prison to be used as a last resort.

Dr Williams condemned the government for overseeing a massive rise in the prison population and for locking up more vulnerable children and women.

Our penal policy is simply scandalous. There is no other word for it Dr Rowan Williams

The Rethinking Sentencing: A Contribution to the Debate report discussed at the Synod in York calls for more emphasis on restorative justice instead of prison.

This means offenders can be dealt with outside the courts, if they agree to a form of reparation or apology.

Dr Williams said: "In private and increasingly in public, the members of all the main political parties are prepared to agree to the situation we currently face and our penal policy is simply scandalous.

"There is no other word for it and I have heard no serious person in public life deny that."

'Lack of consistency'

He blamed the government for failing to prevent the prison population almost doubling from 42,000 in 1991 to its current high of 76,000.

"Programmes of rehabilitation and education in the prison system are consistently frustrated by the abnormal mobility of the prison populations, as a direct consequence of overcrowding," he said.

"These programmes are frustrated and they are not likely to be helped by some of the ideas for further privatised involvement in this area."

Dr Williams went on: "There are other areas in which we can see scandal.

The archbishop criticised the jailing of vulnerable women and children

"We have heard from the Bishop of Leicester about the outrageous treatment of children in our penal system.

"We have heard about problems for women in prison and the disruption to family life."

He also highlighted the unrepresentative ethnic profile of the UK's prison population.

The Bishop of Leicester, the Right Rev Tim Stevens, told the Synod about Joseph Scholes, a troubled 16-year-old who was found hanged shortly after starting a two-year-sentence for robbery.

Rooftop protest

"Children are not being treated as children and they are not being given the help to address their welfare needs," he said.

A leading former Home Office civil servant, prison governors, and a Lord Justice of Appeal for the Mission and Public Affairs Council were among those to write the report.

Fathers' rights activists earlier disrupted the Sunday service of Synod with a rooftop protest on York Minster.

On Saturday the Church of England voted in favour of a measure saying a bride and groom would only have to show a "demonstrable connection" to the parish to marry in a certain church.

It rejected plans to create "heresy courts" to discipline clergy over allegations of misconduct.