The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is launching a review into sentencing to solve the prison crisis and make sure that the government is not forced to release prisoners again due to prison capacity shortages. This was announced by Shabana Mahmood, Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, on 22nd October, after the emergency release of prisoners due to overcrowding in September.
The independent review, chaired by former Conservative Lord Chancellor David Gauke, has a number of aims focusing on ensuring public protection and full capacity in prisons to punish serious offenders. The review also aims to look into the possibilities of rehabilitating offenders to reduce reoccurring offences, and review the framework around custodial sentences, and ways to challenge prolific offending. Detailed findings are to be submitted to the Lord Chancellor by spring 2025.
The second wave of release of prisoners is a temporary solution that bought the MoJ ‘valuable time’ to assess the goals of the reviews, according to Shabana Mahmood. As per her statement, this has enabled the increase of magistrates’ court sentencing powers, and reduced the backlog of Crown Court cases whilst shrinking the population of remand prisoners.
This also puts focus on the crisis of prison population. As reported in the Justice Gap, overcrowding in prisons in the UK is not new- with three in five prisons in England and Wales dealing with increased populations. David Gauke further commented ‘clearly, our prisons are not working. The prison population is increasing by around 4,500 every year and nearly 90% of those sentenced are reoffenders.’
While the government plans to create 14,000 extra prison places, the MoJ added ‘we cannot build our way out of this crisis’ observing that ‘we must therefore review our sentencing framework, ensuring we never run out of prison places again.’
The Justice Gap reported yesterday on the possibility of house arrests as an alternative to prison sentences. Commenting on this aspect, Andrea Coomber KC (Hon.), Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: ‘We can start to put things right if we shift our focus away from the length of sentences and towards what people are doing while serving them. Ensuring people have the support they need to move on from crime will make everyone safer.’
The MoJ will also extend the maximum curfew period offenders spend on Home Detention Curfew (HDC) from 6 to 12 months, focusing on less time in prisons and longer in the community being electronically monitored. Additionally, the MoJ will change policies to target low risk cases causing growth in prison population, and work with the Home Office to speed up the transfer of Foreign National Offenders from prison.
However, the review will not consider the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP). Mark Day, deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust, commented: ‘It is vital the government does not lose sight of the ongoing injustice faced by thousands of people still subject to the abolished IPP sentence.’ He also mentioned that effort needs to be put in place on progressing the sentences for those who were never released and are still in prison many times over the course of their original tariff.
