The government has been urged to make the biggest improvement Justice system In decades, in a major new review how criminals should be punished and jail sentence.
Review of long -awaited sentence by former Tory Justice Secretary David Gauk – Labor’s Shabana Mahmood commissioned in his office in his first weeks Prisoners The crisis reached the boiling point – published on Thursday.
The review recommends a huge change in the way crimes punish the crimes, including most of the gel punishments of the time less than a year in favor of community sentences and curfew. Current use of chemical caustation for some sexual criminals Using drugs to reduce your libido and binding sexual ideas.
It also asks for “Texas-style” sentences with a maximum and minimum period, in which prisoners can be released a third way in their punishment for good behavior, with more dependence on electronic tagging and curfew.
Warning that “the crisis we are in cannot be understood”, in which the prison employees are leading for dangerous conditions for prison employees and have been contributed to re -contributing to high levels “, Mr. Gauk warned that ministers should” take decisive action “and” could not make their way out of the current crisis.
He said, “These recommendations, which meet the entirety of the justice system, are focused not only on bringing the jail population under control, but also to eventually resume and preserve the victims,” he said.
The former Tory Minister said that “the government should ensure that the government is not again in a situation where the prisoners are forced to rely on the release of the prisoners”
Who can be spared to jail?
The government should ensure that a custodial sentence of less than 12 months is used only under extraordinary circumstances, such as failure to follow court orders, to provide relief to those who have been relieved of people who have been relieved of domestic misconduct, or for those who have re -worked.
With high use of suspended sentences for low -risk criminals with specific requirements, including pregnant women or drug dependencies, there will be a sentence for punishable offenses with conditions up to three years.
The courts will be given more flexibility to use fines and orders such as traveling, driving and football ban to bid to prevent future insults.
Currently, crimes carrying a possible prison conditions of less than one year include crimes such as theft, public disorders, drug offenses and barbarity.
Critics of low prison sentence have long argued that they are associated with high rates of resume, community sentences are often considered more effective in addressing the underlying causes of early offenses compared to the prison.
Which prisoners can be freed quickly?
In prisoners at standard sentences of less than four years, prisoners can be freed from one -third of the path in their punishment for good behavior, or on a half -way mark, to their punishment with supervision in the community, up to two -third ways.
More severe criminals can be half -free in their sentences, or later if they fail to comply.
People considered dangerous by a judge can be eligible to apply for parole first-instead of two-thirds they engage in rehabilitation activities and earn “credit”. They would be released only when the parole board decided that it was safe to do so.
According to the review, its five major proposals – if enacted – will cut the jail’s population up to 9,800.
What other measures include?
The review also recommends tightening the threshold to bring criminals back to jail. It stated that the last quarter of 2024 included a fee of recall in less than a quarter of the time, and about three quarters included non-non-compliance with license terms, including a tag out of the battery, or probation meeting.
Instead, criminals should only be returned to jail in the event of a “terms of license or frequent non-transportation with specific and imminent risk”, according to the review-with the length of recall of such measures to reflect a more serious nature of such measures with lengths from 14 or 28 days to 56 to 56 to 56 to 56.
The review also suggested that the use of chemical caustation for the most serious sexual criminals in six jails and in an ongoing pilot in South West England, which uses drugs to limit the aggressive sexual views of criminals and reduce their libido.
It recommends that the government should “do more research in international use of chemical repression” and continue small -scale pilots before any decision to carry forward such measures in England and Wales.
Warning that a major use of community sentences would already move forward CrisisThe review recommends promoting a major funds for service, while probation authorities must be given more autonomy to effectively manage their cases.
Why does the government say that reforms are necessary?
Describing the situation as “to be in a terrible reality”, which reflects the scale of “terrible heritage” conservative Party Left behind ”, justice secretary told Many times That she faces “very, very difficult decisions”.
Ms. Mahmud said: “But this is where we have a duty, we have to work in the best interest of the country, we have to ensure that there is one there Criminal justice system Worthy of name. We have to make sure that we do not run out of jail places. ,
With the increase in the length of the jail sentence for decades, the currently convicted for promoting congested crisis, in addition to a growing remand population due to a record crown court backlog, the previous Tory government was first forced to release prisoners to release prisoners in October 2023, which release 10,000 prisoners in electricity.
After general election in July 2024, as crisis Threatened to delay the court hearing, Labor said that he had no option but to leave more than thousands of prisoners in half a way instead of 40 percent.
But the jails are once again filled with 99 percent, just a few hundred places remaining.
What is the reaction?
Senior justice figures have been warning for a long time that with HM Chief Inspector, reforms are required to prevent prisons from frequent space. Charlie Taylor Say Independent In 2023 The crisis was a “tick time bomb” and Britain needed to decide what the purpose of the jail should be.
Speaking in front of the publication of review, his predecessor Nick hard The proposals were welcomed as “very positive” and “sensible” measures, which will “put some pressure from the system and enable it to focus on those who need to focus too much”.
But he warned of many “large risks”, which would require “really careful management and idea”, questioning whether there will be enough available community services – housing, drug abuse intake services and education in areas such as “gel viable options”.
Andrea Kodi, head of Justice Charity Necro’s policy, said that a new approach to the rehabilitation of criminals was “strict requirement”, but told Independent: “Awarding those associated with the rehabilitation process seems like a brain, but we are worried that the gel system is not established to give it as it stands.”
Ms. Kodi said: “Jails need to make important investment and strategic plans to work well, with facilities to offer meaningful work, and all have to work in the initial release plan behavior on good behavior, and inside the education course.”
