Top judge calls for less jailing

[Don Rizzle]

Top judge calls for less jailing
The Lord Chief Justice has urged more use of community sentences, as the jail population nears capacity levels.
England and Wales' most senior judge said prisons were too crowded to provide effective rehabilitation.

He spoke to the Observer after working undercover on a community punishment scheme with convicted criminals.

Meanwhile a memo reportedly shows the home secretary is willing to "risk" a rise in open prison escapes if measures to address overcrowding are brought in.

John Reid has been meeting members of the National Offender Management Service and Immigration and Nationality Directorate to discuss moves such as the early release of prisoners and the use of about 500 police cells.

Prisoners convicted of non-sexual or violent crimes could also be moved from secure to open jails to make room for new inmates.

'Not soft'

Norman Brennan, director of the Victims of Crime Trust, criticised the government's record on law and order.

He said: "Its obsession with keeping dangerous and persistent criminals out of prison has been a licence to cause mayhem and allowed too many criminals to think they are untouchable.

"Community sentences are in the main treated with contempt by criminals."

The prison population has hit an all-time high of 79,843, and in theory there are just 125 spare spaces available.


 By spending much less on services in the community, you can do as good a job
Lord Chief Justice
 

But the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Maltravers, described the idea of keeping prisoners in police cells as "highly undesirable".

He was interviewed after helping to clean up a run-down council estate in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire.

He had posed as a drink-driver and served part of a community order, alongside convicted criminals, to prove tough non-custodial sentences should be imposed on many more offenders, the Observer said.

He told the paper: "I like to think that I am a liberal but that is not the same as being soft on crime.

"The ideal that alternatives to custody is being soft is wrong."

He said the public must be educated to distinguish between the "brutal, dangerous offender and the inadequate who offends to get money for drugs".

Asked if prisons were now simply "social dustbins", he said: "I think they are to some extent".

He also said it was "madness" to spend £37,000 jailing someone "when, by spending much less on services in the community, you can do as good a job".

Risk assessments

The warning on a potential rise in absconds - as well as a risk of increased drug use - came in an 3 August memorandum to staff from Fiona Radford, the governor of Ford open prison in West Sussex.

Ms Radford reportedly said she had informed the Prison Service director general Phil Wheatley of her assessment.


 No prisoner who represents a significant risk to the public will be moved to the open estate
Phil Wheatley, Prison Service chief 

According to the Sunday Times, which published the memo, Ms Radford wrote: "Ministers have apparently been briefed to this effect and are taking this risk... Increase(d) number of absconds and increased number of drug positives accepted as inevitable by JR". The newspaper said JR was understood to refer to Mr Reid.

In a statement Mr Wheatley said: "Prisoners are always risk-assessed before they are moved to the open estate.

"The home secretary has made it absolutely clear that no prisoner who represents a significant risk to the public will be moved to the open estate."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4801537.stm

Published: 2006/10/08 08:13:53 GMT

[Don Rizzle]

this show how out of touch the judges are - prisoners now only serve half their sentence, re offening is up and we have thousands of foreign prisoners gone missing etc.

what ever happenned to tony blairs pledge to be tough on crime and the causes of crime. what we need is more jails not even softer sentences. It seem police go after the easy targets such as minor motoring offenses instead of going after the real criminals and the ones they do catch are out in no time at all. we only have 80k prison spaces for a population of over 60m alarm bells should be ringing eespecially when there are only 125 spaces left

[acgrundy]

they really need to start executing more people