Ministry of Justice

It is a step in the right direction for Lord Falconer, the caretaker Minister of Justice, to announce that shorter sentences will be given to some prisoners to ease the record prison overcrowding crisis caused by the Labour government following knee-jerk get tough policies. But, he (or whoever takes over the role)needs to go further and drop this silly labelling of "dangerous" offenders and "non-dangerous" offenders. Some crimes by their very nature are more serious than others. This is clear cut, for example, murder is more serious than theft. It should be left at that. Academics have pondered over the theory of dangerousness, and there is no clear consensus of what constitutes dangerousness and who might fit into that loosely labelled bracket. Therefore, it makes more sense to steer away from vague concepts and stick to what we do know and what is certain. There is a lack of clarity otherwise and it prevents people seeing justice being done.

It is good to see that Lord Falconer has steered away from the silly suggestion made by John Reid to make those doing community service sentences stand out by wearing bright orange overalls. This is just branding by another name and method. However, Lord Falconer is stupidly considering putting signs up to inform the public that graffiti has been cleaned up by those undergoing community sentences. This is merely replacing one form of graffiti with another, and the odds are that these signs will become the target of graffiti artists themselves. I don't need a sign telling me that a particular area has been cleared of rubbish, I can see with my eyes that that is the case. It does not need to be underlined and there is no need to waste money on signs.

Lord Falconer is making a big mistake stating that he is committed to implementing the Home Office plan to provide 8,000 more prison places by 2012. This is empire building. The prison population already stands at 80,303. Expansionism is not necessary to provide protection to the public, in fact it actually provides the opposite and is a waste of money. The prison population should not exceed 50,000. And instead of a prison building programme, we need to embark upon a policy of reductionism and close down the old Victorian prisons. A smaller more manageable system is what any liberal democratic country strives to achieve.

I think that it is a good idea that Lord Falconer should be replaced by someone from the House of Commons. It was never a good idea for a Tony Crony to be given this job in the first place. It is the kind of job that requires appointment by merit. Neither Geoff Hoon nor Jack Straw fall into this category. Hilary Benn, on the other hand, does appear to have the right kind of qualities required for this job. The sooner Lord Falconer is replaced the quicker things can get back to normal and improvements get under way.