The backlash against short-term prison sentences intensified today after the representative bodies of both prison governors and probation officers condemned them as expensive and ineffective.
Their criticism comes two weeks after the outgoing head of the prison service, Phil Wheatley, told The Independent that short-term sentences do nothing to rehabilitate offenders.
Now the Prison Governors' Association and the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo) have called for a greater use of community punishments, which are cheaper and are shown better to reduce reoffending than short-term sentences.
Prisoners serving less than six months make up about 10 per cent of the prison population, meaning there are about 8,500 on any given day. Last year 55,333 people were jailed for six months or less at a cost of about £350m to the Ministry of Justice.
And from the Guardian...
Prison bosses call for end to short-term jail sentences
Halt £4bn prison building programme and mete out more community punishments, say governors ahead of review
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