Former Conservative leader calls for short prison sentences to be scrapped
November 2, 2009
In a speech today Iain Duncan Smith is expected to outline proposals to do away with prison sentences of less than two months and replace them with a better system of probation. The new proposals are part of a report put together by the Centre for Social Justice and also include recommendations that authorities should concentrate more on trying to rehabilitate offenders and offer better support programmes to alcoholics and drug addicts.
Roma Hooper, director of the Make Justice Work campaign welcomed the recommendations but said that ideally England should be following the Scottish decision to abolish all sentences under six-months. Hooper went on to say that any small changes made to the prison service could go a very long way to help tackle the countries problems with low level crime.
Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary said that he would be looking at the report closely. He said that any changes made to penal policy would have to be well thought out and not just snap reactions. He went on to say that the government had already put a lot of effort into introducing tougher community sentences as a way of cutting down the amount of offenders going to prison for short periods of time.
The Centre for Social Justice report says that reoffenders cost the country in the region of 11 billion every year and that short jail sentences merely increase the problems of prison overcrowding. Jack Straw said that because of initiatives to cut down on short term prison sentences the female prison population is less than it once was.
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