Calls for prison sentences under a year to be scrapped
The Government’s current approach to prison funding to accommodate growing population forecasts is inefficient, ineffective, and unsustainable in the medium or long-term, says the Justice Committee in a major new report published today.
Reporting on a wide-ranging 18-month inquiry, the Committee agrees with Justice Secretary David Gauke that there is a very strong case for abolishing sentences of six months or less altogether. Re-offending costs an estimated £15 billion a year; the report recommends that there must be a focus on investing services to reduce this, thus cutting crime and reducing the overall size of the prison population - which is increased through repeat imprisonment.
Over the past 25 years, the prison population for England and Wales has almost doubled in size - from 44,246 in 1993 to 82,384 in December 2018. Capacity has not kept pace with demand and many prisons are now overcrowded. The inquiry heard how staffing shortages and other disruptions have severely undermined the delivery of rehabilitative services in prisons, including education, mental health treatment, substance misuse treatment and offending behaviour programmes. The Committee concluded that this creates immeasurable wasted costs.
The nature of the prison population is rapidly changing: a higher proportion of offenders are in prison for serious violent or sexual offences. The average age is rising and many prisoners have mental health problems. All these factors and others make the current cohort of prisoners extremely challenging.
The report argues that the Government’s focus on addressing safety and decency in prisons has come at the expense of rehabilitation. The Ministry of Justice needs to refocus its efforts to enable a dual approach to maintain both safety and decency, as well as improve rehabilitation.
Published: by Radio NewsHub