Every week in these pages there are court reports focusing on driving, drugs, violence, and other crimes. In a recent case an offender who stole mobile phones worth over £7,000 was jailed for 30 weeks for that and other offences. Yet, under new plans unveiled by the government sentences of less than 12 months will effectively be scrapped.
In the case above, the offender had previously committed 112 offences. Such profile offenders should be punished for their crimes for the misery they inflict on victims and the loss they cause businesses.
Prison is about punishing people, preventing them offending and rehabilitation. Clearly more can be done when people are released to reduce the likelihood of reoffending such as the provision of accommodation and proper support.
Taking inspiration from the Texas prison system, under the government’s plans offenders could be released after serving as little as a third of their sentence simply for “following the rules.” In Parliament I challenged the Lord Chancellor on those plans which ignore the principle of punishment and the concerns and interests of victims. Abiding by the rules should be a minimum requirement for those in prison - not a way to get let out early.
And the government is planning to weaken laws put in place by the last Conservative government BY allowing murderers, rapists, and child sex offenders out after serving half their sentence if they behave well.
It was sobering to see the Heads of the Met Police, MI5, and the National Crime Agency delivered an unprecedented warning that the plans to release tens of thousands of dangerous criminals early could risk public safety. They are also calling for additional funding in the spending review next week to be able to maintain police numbers and deliver promises on neighbourhood policing - I have lobbied the Home Secretary to listen to Norfolk Police and other forces.
I recently spent time with the local probation service team and visited a local community payback project in Lynn. I heard about some of the successes the committed staff have in managing offenders as well as challenges facing the system.
While community sentences undoubtedly have a role to play in some less serious cases, my view is that the government’s plans to scrap short sentences less than 12 months are wrong in principle and will place huge demands on an already pressured probation system. It is even more of a risk to the public as the measures are not being piloted or introduced in a staged approach.
Now, the government says it has had to make this choice due to a lack of prison capacity. I certainly accept the last government could and should have done more to expand the prison estate.
But there an alternative. The government could deport more of the 10,800 foreign offenders currently in our jails, it could max out the crown court sitting days to reduce the 17,000 prisoners on remand awaiting trials, and it could have repurposed buildings or procured emergency places.
Instead, it has chosen a path that is likely to see higher levels of crime and reoffending - if criminals know there is little chance of them being imprisoned for certain crimes where is the deterrent?
