Magistrates should be banned from handing out custodial sentences

Magistrates should be banned from handing out custodial sentences

Magistrates should be banned from handing out custodial sentences to help ease overcrowding in prisons, an influential report says.

The study says Britain's jails are full to bursting because too many offenders are being sent to prison for lesser offences like burglary.

The report from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London says the burgeoning prison population is not because more offences are brought to justice. Rather, more offenders are being locked away for longer.

Terror convicts to be released from prison early

Dozens of inmates convicted of terrorism offences will be released after serving half their sentences under rules introduced by the Government.

Those released early are likely to include family members who knew about the July 21 bombings but failed to tell the police and others who helped the bombers escape.

One radical cleric, Abdullah el-Faisal, who influenced both the July 7 and July 21 bombers, has already been released, deported back to his native Jamaica, and is now preaching in South Africa.

The most recent Criminal Justice Act brought in rules which mean prisoners serving determinate sentences are automatically eligible for release midway through their jail terms.