Calls for shake-up of criminal justice system
The criminal justice system must be radically reformed because it wastes money, is overly centralised and cannot provide a lasting solution to crime, according to a group of leading experts.
They argue the system is driven by misleading and often meaningless targets while prisons struggle to cope with severe overcrowding.
The Commission on English Prisons Today found England jails more people than almost any other nation in Western Europe despite no evidence of higher crime levels.
David Wilson, commission chair, said: ‘Since early in the 1990s, England and Wales have been set on a course towards becoming a jurisdiction which punishes excessively, harshly and with little attention paid to the relationship between legislation and the impact on prison numbers.
‘Less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison should be an achievable future.’
Commissioned by the Howard League for Penal Reform, the report calls for a significant reduction in the prison population, extra investment in crime hotspots to reduce offending, the replacement of short-term custody with community-based sentences and the dismantling of the National Offender Management Service.
It suggests devolving prison and probation budgets to a new type of local strategic partnership that brings together representatives from sectors including criminal justice, health and education. Local authorities would lead these partnerships.
Crime reduction charity Nacro welcomed the report.
Chief executive Paul Cavadino said: ‘The report convincingly shows how the overuse of prison has become a damaging distraction from proven ways of stopping reoffending and providing restoration to victims.
‘In particular, we strongly support the recommendation to redeploy funding urgently to community-based initiatives to avoid the pointless use of short sentences.’
Think tank the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) also backed the commission’s findings.
Andy Sawford, LGIU chief executive, said: ‘There is a gathering consensus that the heavy hand of Whitehall can’t deliver the change we need that will drive down crime for good.
‘Too much money is being spent on the revolving door of prisons and too little in putting an end to repeated offending.
‘In a time when money is scarce, we need local people to make sure money goes where it will make a difference.’
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