Longer prison sentences are not the way to cut crime

Longer prison sentences are not the way to cut crime


Contrary to the claims of Civitas, prison is not the right place to rehabilitate the vast majority of offenders

A new report published by the thinktank Civitas claims that increasing the length of prison sentences for burglary and fraud reduces offending. But this simple analysis hides a much more complicated problem. According to the Civitas research, increasing the average sentence for burglary by one month would reduce offending by about 0.5%. In our experience at Nacro, all that prison does in these cases is to delay the next offence from taking place. A slightly longer sentence just means a slightly longer delay in reoffending.