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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Crackdown May Mean 15 New Jails
ccguide Wednesday 29 Mar 2000 Pubdate: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 Source: Guardian, The (UK) Copyright: Guardian Media Group 2000 Contact: Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/ Author: Julia Hartley-Brewer CRACKDOWN MAY MEAN 15 NEW JAILS Fifteen new jails must be built to house the thousands of extra offenders who will be imprisoned each year under tough sentencing to be brought in by the Home Office, probation officers will warn today. There could be about 60,000 additional offenders each year as a result of the legislation, the National Association of Probation Officers warned. The criminal justice and court services bill, which received its second reading yesterday, aims to tighten penalties for offenders breaching community sentences and to crack down on drug offenders. But probation officers predicted the legislation would require 15 new jails and cost UKP210m a year. Napo said that up to 40,000 offenders who breached community sentences, as well as 10,000 offenders denied bail because they tested positive for class A drugs on arrest, would be jailed. And the prison population could be increased by up to 7,500 offenders each year who breached curfews and orders to attend drug treatment centres. Napo's assistant general secretary, Harry Fletcher, said: "The majority of this group need treatment and assistance, not punishment." The Home Office dismissed Napo's figures as "nonsense", estimating that 15,000 people breaching orders under the new rules would be jailed. A spokeswoman said: "We have calculated that, as a result of the enforcement proposals, around 2,000 extra prison places will be required." - --- MAP posted-by: Allan Wilkinson
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