By Eric King-
Justice Secretary, David Gauke, has called for a national discussion and debate about smart justice in his bid to seek alternatives to short prison sentences, which he says does not work.
Gauke, under whose appointment, stability to the prison estate with a £70 million investment in safety, security and decency has improved prison conditions is exploring different ways of avoiding prison for criminals of less serious offences. Having invested £16 million to improve conditions for prisoners and staff, and £7 million for new security measures, such as scanners, Gauke has brought the standard of British prisons a long way from their awful past. British prisons cannot be said to be perfect or ideal, there are still dangerous people there who commit awful crimes and make prison unbearable for other inmates.
The Ministry Of Justice are still convinced that things are much better than before, especially with improved searching techniques, phone-blocking technology and a financial crime unit to target the criminal kingpins operating in prisons.
More than 4,300 prison officers have been recruited, staffing levels are at their highest since 2012, and there has been a significant focus on prisoner rehabilitation.
The MoJ established the Education and Employment strategy last year, focusing prison regimes on rehabilitation and helping set each prisoner on a path to employment for when they are released. With many new initiatives looking good , Gauke today announced he was seeking a more “imaginative” approach to crime and punishment, with greater focus on rehabilitation in the community. Gauke there is a “very strong case” to abolish sentences of six months or less altogether, with some “closely defined exceptions”, such as for violent and sexual crimes.He suggested replacing short custodial terms would be replaced by “robust” community orders.
In setting out his vision, the Justice Secretary stressed he did not want to reverse tougher sentencing for serious crimes, but urged caution in continuing to increase sentence length as a response to concerns over crime.
Instead, he urged those who shape the system to “take a step back” and ask fundamental questions such as whether our approach to sentencing reduces crime; if prisons currently maximise the chances of rehabilitation; and if we should look at better alternatives to punish and rehabilitate offenders. Gauke said:
I think now is the time for us as a society, as a country, to start a fresh conversation, a national debate about what justice, including punishment, should look like for our modern times.
“I know that there will be some who argue that the only problem with our criminal justice system is that it isn’t tough enough, that the answer to short sentences is longer sentences, that the best way of stopping recently released prisoners from re-offending is not to release them.
“And that the endless ratchet effect of higher sentences is giving the public what it wants.
“But I believe that those in positions of responsibility have a duty to show leadership.”
The Tories’ approach to sentencing has been analysed against the “prison works” doctrine since former home secretary Michael Howard used the phrase 25 years ago.
Conservative MP Philip Davies claimed it was “frankly idiotic” to suggest abolishing prison sentences of six months or less.
He said: “In virtually every case the offender has been given community sentence after community sentence and they are only sent to prison because they have failed to stop their offending.
“So to give them community sentences instead is bonkers.
“This proposal will completely undermine any reputation we have for being the party of law and order and, more seriously, will create more unnecessary victims of crime.” Mr Gauke cited figures showing that, in the last five years, just over a quarter of a million custodial sentences have been given to offenders for six months or less, while more than 300,000 sentences were for 12 months or less.
Gauke said, nearly two thirds of those handed the punishments go on to commit a further crime within a year of being released. Shoplifting is the most common crime attracting sentences of under six months, with around 11,500 such cases a year.
Mr Gauke said: “For the offenders completing these short sentences whose lives are destabilised, and for society which incurs a heavy financial and social cost, prison simply isn’t working.
“That’s why there is a very strong case to abolish sentences of six months or less altogether, with some closely defined exceptions, and put in their place, a robust community order regime.” Gauke said he was looking not only at more effective punishment for those on short sentences, but also those convicted of more serious crimes such as fraud, where the custody rate has increased from 14.5% in 2007 to over 20% now.
He singled out how fraudsters – whose crimes can be “devastating” for victims – could return to their comfortable lifestyles after prison, but that this could be addressed through “a combination of technology and radical thinking”.
RESTRICTIONS
After serving part of their sentence behind bars, we could, for example, continue to restrict an offender’s movement, their activities and their lifestyle beyond prison in a much more intensive way.
And that could also mean a real shift in the standard of living a wealthy criminal can expect after prison.
I want to look at how, once a jail term has been served, we can continue to restrict their expenditure and monitor their earnings, using new technology to enable proper enforcement.
They would be in no uncertainty that, once sentenced, they wouldn’t be able to reap any lifestyle benefits from their crimes and would need to make full reparation to the community as part of the sentence. Gauke concluded by saying:
Prison will always play a part in serving as punishment for serious crimes and in rehabilitation, and our reforms will deliver that. But we need to think more imaginatively about different and more modern forms of punishment in the community. Punishments that are punitive, for a purpose.
As with our approach to short sentences, ultimately, it’s about doing what works to reduce re-offending and make us all safer and less likely to be a future victim of crime.