Subj:  UK: Too many in prison, say MPs



Date: Friday, September 11, 1998



Source:    The Independent (UK)





Too many in prison, say MPs

By Ian Burrell, Home Affairs Correspondent 



A powerful House of Commons committee

yesterday called on courts to lock up fewer

criminals and make greater use of community

sentencing to relieve pressure on Britain's "full to

bursting" prisons. 



The Home Affairs Select Committee said the

Government should set up trials using weekend

sentences, where offenders go to work during the

week and are jailed only on Saturday and

Sunday, in order to reduce the burden on prisons.



The MPs also called for greater use of suspended

sentences and backed government plans to

extend home curfew initiatives where offenders

are made to wear electronic tags. 



The report was heralded by penal reformers as

the "death knell" for the culture of tough

sentencing policy which has seen the jail

population rise by 50 per cent in the past five

years to 65,000. The figure is expected to grow

to 82,000 by 2005 - despite a falling crime rate. 



Paul Cavadino, of the National Association for

the Care and Rehabilitation of Offenders, said: "It

is the clearest all-party statement for several years

of the futility of jailing more and more offenders in

increasingly overstretched prisons. It reflects a

striking sea-change in the political consensus

away from the idea that locking up more

offenders holds the answer to crime problems." 



But the report was criticised by the Police

Superintendents' Association of England and

Wales which said the bulging prisons were the

reason for the fall in crime. The president, Chief

Superintendent Peter Gammon, said: "The fact is

prison works. That has been proved over the last

five years. Yes, on the face of it prison is

expensive, costing UKP1.8bn a year, but so is crime

which costs . as much as UKP30bn a year," he said. 



The Commons report states that according to Sir

David Ramsbotham, the chief inspector of

prisons, about 30 per cent of adult prisoners

should not be in jail. In addition, about 70 per

cent of the women and 40 per cent of young

prisoners did not need to be jailed. 



The committee chairman, Chris Mullin MP, said:

"There are offenders for whom prison is the only

appropriate penalty, but there are many people

currently sentenced to imprisonment who could

be dealt with more effectively and at far less

expense by a non-custodial sentence." 



MPs said there was evidence that the best forms

of community sentence were more effective in

stopping criminals repeating their offences and

were cheaper. They said the bill for an average

prison sentence was UKP24,271 compared with

UKP1,770-3,500 for a community sentence,

depending on the type of order. 



The committee was also critical of probation

officers for only taking action against offenders

who breach their community sentences in 28 per

cent of cases. 



But Harry Fletcher, of the National Association of

Probation Officers, said: "The number of

probation officers in post has fallen by 10 per

cent since 1995. During the same period court

orders have grown by 29 per cent. Improving

standards is not sustainable without sufficient

staff."