Kenneth Clarke: Fewer criminals will go to prison

Kenneth Clarke: Fewer criminals will go to prison

Fewer criminals will be jailed and more offenders will get community sentences because prison doesn’t work in many cases, Kenneth Clarke will signal.

By James Kirkup and Tom Whitehead
Published: 11:50PM BST 29 Jun 2010


Mr Clarke will also say it is 'virtually impossible' to rehabilitate someone during a jail term of less than 12 months. Photo: HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY

The Justice Secretary will declare that deep cuts in public spending must fuel a new approach to crime and punishment that puts more emphasis on rehabilitating offenders than on locking them up.

Describing today’s prison population as “astonishing”, he will say that the current system is simply “warehousing” criminals at great expense and doing nothing to prevent them re-offending when they are released.

In the strongest signal yet that the Coalition could scrap short prison sentences for many crimes, Mr Clarke will also say it is “virtually impossible” to rehabilitate someone during a jail term of less than 12 months.

The Coalition will soon launch a full review of sentencing policy.

Fuelling expectations that the review will reduce the number of custodial sentences imposed on offenders, Mr Clarke will say that the debate on criminal justice must move on from the “numbers game” of measuring the effectiveness of policies solely according to the prison population.

Instead of counting the number of people in jail, politicians and the public should focus on the re-offending rate, which has risen in recent years, he will say in a speech at King's College London.

Mr Clarke’s aides said his speech is intended as a criticism of Labour’s management of the criminal justice system. But it will inevitably draw comparisons with the approach taken by previous Conservative administrations.

Michael Howard, Mr Clarke’s successor as Home Secretary in Sir John Major’s government, declared in 1993 that “prison works”.

But Mr Clarke will openly challenge that notion, suggesting that recent falls in crime have been caused by economic and social factors, not the increasing use of prison sentences.

“Too often prison has proved a costly and ineffectual approach that fails to turn criminals into law-abiding citizens,” he will say. “In our worst prisons it produces tougher criminals.”

Almost half of all prisoners reoffend within a year of their release, official figures show. For those serving sentences of less than a year, the recidivism rate is 60 per cent.

Around 60,000 people each year serve a prison sentence of less than 12 months.

Mr Clarke will suggest today that such sentences are all but worthless.

“It is virtually impossible to do anything productive with offenders on short sentences,” he will say. “And many of them end up losing their jobs, their homes and their families during their short term inside.”

Mr Clarke’s remarks may prepare the way for controversial moves to reduce the use of short custodial sentences, as the Liberal Democrats proposed in their election manifesto.

Earlier this month the Prison Governors Association joined the National Association of Probation Officers in calling for an end to sentences of less than a year.

The number of people behind bars has risen steadily to its current record level but neither crime rates nor public concerns about crime have fallen to a similar extent, he will say.

Mr Clarke was Home Secretary in 1992-93, when the prison population was around 45,000. Today, it stands at 85,000.

“This is quite an astonishing number which I would have dismissed as an impossible and ridiculous prediction if it had been put to me as a forecast in 1992,” Mr Clarke will say.

The average cost of keeping an offender in prison for a year is almost £40,000 and the Government currently spends £2.2 billion a year on the prison system.

In opposition, the Conservatives drew up plans to build 5,000 new prison places and promised to meet a Labour pledge of 96,000 prison places by 2014.

But with departments like the Ministry of Justice facing budget cuts of up to 33 per cent over the next four years, Mr Clarke will signal that the days of rising prison numbers must end.

“Just banging up more and more people for longer without actively seeking to change them is what you would expect of Victorian England,” he will say.

Whitehall sources said Mr Clarke’s approach to sentencing and prison numbers is causing concern in Downing Street.

Some of David Cameron’s senior aides are said to worry that the Coalition will be criticised by voters unless it is seen to be tough on crime.

Mr Clarke is prepared for criticism over his approach from right-wing Conservative MPs and some parts of the media and will say: “It is too simple to argue about tougher sentencing or softer sentencing, although it makes for good headlines. I believe in intelligent sentencing.”

But to reassure people worried about a more liberal approach to crime, Mr Clarke is examining measures to make community penalties much tougher.

He will promise “rigorously enforced community sentences that punish offenders” at the same time as helping them get them off drugs and alcohol and into work.

Some Conservative MPs and law-and-order campaigners will reject the minister's new focus on rehabilitation, dismissing community sentences and other non-custodial sentences as a soft and ineffective response to crime.

The National Audit Office reported two years ago that some criminals given community sentences were routinely allowed to skip community work and other requirements because probation officers do not properly enforce the rules.