WE ARE A MAGAZINE ABOUT LAW AND JUSTICE | AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO
February 18 2025
WE ARE A MAGAZINE ABOUT LAW AND JUSTICE | AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO

Ministry of Justice to overhaul sentencing with possible introduction of house arrest

Ministry of Justice to overhaul sentencing with possible introduction of house arrest

Maidston Prison. (Picture by Andy Aitchison)

The Ministry of Justice has announced is launching a review of sentencing policy to resolve the growing crisis in prisons.

They have emphasised the possibility of introducing house arrest as an alternative to prison sentences. The review will affect sentencing in England and Wales. In a statement released on Monday the review chair, former Conservative Justice Minister David Gauke, said that ‘by next spring’ the review ‘should have the answer’ to the crisis of overcrowding in prison.

David Gauke in a statement to the Guardian in 2019 that ‘offenders given a community sentence including mental health treatment’ were ‘significantly less likely to reoffend’.

One possible outcome of the review is the potential for Judges to pass a sentence of house arrest with electronic monitoring and a focus on rehabilitation. This ‘house arrest’ could even be aided by technology, such as smart watches, ‘nudging’ offenders to ensure attendance at mental health and probation appointments. Speaking on the functionality of such a sentence Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, said that the review would have to ‘look at mechanisms’ to monitor offenders with such a sentence and that it ‘still has to be a punishment’.

The Guardian has reported that many US states already employ a similar system of sentencing, in particular Texas where the prison population has dropped by 15% since the introduction of the scheme in 2007 and reoffending is down by 30%.

The review comes on the heels of the second wave of early release of prisoners in an attempt to ease the issue of overcrowding. The first wave in September of this year was met with criticism for poor planning as reflected by the statement of the President of the Police Superintendent Association, Nick Smart, that inmates were released ‘without proper rehabilitation and release plans’.

The issue of overcrowding in UK prisons is not new, in May of this year the Justice Gap reported that the country was ‘sleepwalking into a crisis’ as the issue continues to worsen as per a government report. Prison Reform Trust deputy director, Mark Day, commented that the crisis ‘has brought our criminal justice system close to collapse’. Longer sentences are part of that issue, in 2012 the average sentence was 14.5 months, in March 2024 that number had risen to 20.6 months.

Earlier this year the Justice Gap reported on Conservative policies regarding sentencing when they proposed an overhaul of murder laws and sentencing if re-elected. Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, Andrea Coomber KC, stated that this review ‘presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity’ for a more ‘humane and effective response to crime’.

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