Politicians’ desire to be tough on crime drives prison overcrowding

Half 1

This paper units out the small print of the rise in jail inhabitants, the drivers for longer jail sentences and examples of locations the place the pattern of an ever-growing jail inhabitants has been reversed whereas seeing crime fall. Half 2 which is able to set out the eagerly awaited proposals for reform, is anticipated in “Spring”.

A lot of the contents of this assessment shall be greater than acquainted to common readers.

Chapter One exhibits how the jail inhabitants has grown by over 40,000 folks since 1993, with adults sentenced for indictable offences now serving longer sentences, noting that England and Wales even have one of many highest jail inhabitants charges in Western Europe.

Chapter two summarises the drivers behind the rise within the use and size of custody. It concludes that the rise “isn’t the consequence of a thought of technique as the simplest measure to scale back crime”. Nor can or not it’s defined by rising crime ranges. In actual fact, newest estimates from the Crime Survey confirmed there was an total basic decline in incidents of headline crime since 2017.

Mr Gauke has not been afraid to call the elephant within the room, the political want to be robust on crime:

“The rise has been the results of many choices made by successive governments and a “robust on crime” narrative that has centered totally on punishment – understood as incarceration and longer sentences – occasionally responding to embedded misunderstandings about sentencing and high-profile particular person instances. In tandem, there was an underinvestment in probation and different alternate options that may present rehabilitation and cut back reoffending.”

Chapter Three

Chapter three outlines the necessity for change, and advocates for a system rooted in all the present statutory rules of sentencing. The previous Lord Chancellor units out how the emphasis on longer-term imprisonment has positioned important pressure on the system, forcing successive governments to undertake expensive and high-risk emergency measures.

He exhibits that these emergency measures have tried to each enhance short-term capability (usually in methods that are costly and dangerous) and cut back demand by expediting the discharge of prisoners, such because the measures we noticed within the autumn of 2024 when prisoners had been launched 40 per cent (versus 50 per cent) of the way in which by their sentence.

Importantly, this incoherent strategy is extremely costly because the “robust on crime” narrative results in politicians of all events committing to more and more costly jail constructing programmes; the present plans adopted by the brand new Authorities are costed at  £9.4 – £10.1 billion.

Conclusion

Mr Gauke makes it clear that the political impetus to simplify prison justice coverage to a “lock them up and throw away the important thing strategy” is dear and ineffective:

“The piecemeal and unstrategic method by which sentence lengths have elevated in current a long time has meant that there was inadequate consideration of all the statutory goals of sentencing: punishment, crime discount, reform and rehabilitation, public safety and reparation. Punishment is a vital goal for the prison justice system and jail performs an important function in delivering punishment. However too usually decision-making has been based mostly on an strategy that punishment is all that issues, and that the one type of punishment that counts is imprisonment.”

He notes that the results of this strategy “has left England and Wales with a really excessive jail inhabitants by historic and worldwide requirements, which has diverted sources from different elements of the prison justice system that might contribute extra to decreasing reoffending“. He argues {that a} extra balanced strategy would allow sources to be “extra successfully deployed to scale back crime and the variety of victims.”

In fact most individuals, actually Authorities ministers, shall be impatient to see Mr Gauke’s suggestions in Half 2 for simply how this could possibly be achieved.

Because of Andy Aitchison for variety permission to make use of the header picture on this put up. You possibly can see Andy’s work right here