The Telegraph, 20th August 2024
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/20/prison-works-labour-abandon…
Our judicial system is too ready to give habitual offenders short sentences – and the situation will only get worse with Keir Starmer
I know that it is hard to believe it sometimes, but crime has actually fallen over the last decade, by about 50 per cent on a like for like basis. No, I’m not joking; I’m quoting the Office for National Statistics. Indeed, the Chief Inspector of Policing himself said last year, that “England and Wales are arguably safer than they have ever been”.
The Conservatives left Labour with a record number of police officers – an achievement which I was proud to deliver during my time as Home Secretary.
But given the weekly news about another violent attack and the Summer of Discontent that we have seen across the country, I realise that these statistics are of little solace. Touring the country as Home Secretary, meeting senior police chiefs and rank and file officers alike, mothers of murdered children, rape survivors and even those who had had their mobile phone or bicycle stolen, I got the overwhelming impression that the public were crying out for more justice.
One complaint I would hear again and again was that it was too easy for criminals to get away with their misdeeds. Victims feeling let down. The gruelling investigative and prosecutorial work put in by the police and the Crown Prosecution Service too often resulting in a mere slap on the wrist once in court. And the public increasingly losing faith in a judiciary seen to hand down woefully inadequate sentences.
Justice is not being seen to be done – or indeed being done – in too many cases. Now the evidence supporting this is incontrovertible. As The Telegraph reported last week, offenders are increasingly avoiding prison. Data from the Ministry of Justice shows that offenders with more than 50 previous convictions have been spared jail in over 50,000 cases since 2007.
It goes without saying that these prolific offenders simply continue their law-breaking: re-offending rates are still far too high and the vast majority of crimes are committed by a small minority of perpetrators.
It gets worse. Hyper-prolific offenders, as set out in David Spencer’s Policy Exchange report The ‘Wicked and the Redeemable’, who have very long criminal CVs are, largely, not getting custody. More and more offenders who are not just repeat offenders, but who actually have over 100 previous convictions are avoiding jail.
Consider the case of Craig Nicholson in Gateshead, convicted of nine charges of theft and one charge of attempted theft last year. Despite his 343 previous convictions, he only received a 24-month community order, was fined £100 and given a two-year Criminal Behaviour Order.
Or Carey Lyons in Belfast, convicted of 15 charges of possessing over 300 indecent images of children who received only a suspended sentence despite almost 100 previous convictions, previous breach of licence and breach of the terms of sex offender prevention orders. The system has been waylaid by excessive focus on community penalties and fines. This has not worked and we need to toughen up the law to deal with these career criminals.
It was for this reason that I tabled amendments earlier this year to the Conservative government’s now-aborted Sentencing Bill. These “public safety” amendments commanded the support of over 40 colleagues and would have seen those offenders with previous convictions see mandatory custody. And those who had a long history of repeat offending would receive a minimum custodial sentence of two years. Unfortunately these proposals never made it to the statute book due to the general election.
But this Labour government, for all their talk about the “grown ups being back in charge” have taken a reckless and naive approach to our justice system. One of their first acts was to sanction the early release of thousands of criminals onto our streets. Whilst we Conservatives voted against this assault on public safety, it is shameful that we now have a government which has signalled to the criminal class that custody is unlikely in many cases and that the justice system is really just a formality rather than a process whereby fairness is restored and victims get closure.
And they have gone further with extending Operation Early Dawn so that the police will now be forced to release suspects on bail rather than take them to their court hearings.
The pressure on the prison estate is clear and there is an urgent need for more prison places. With political will, they can be delivered. At the Home Office, we constructed asylum accommodation in a matter of months, and so the Ministry of Justice is able to build more capacity if it really wants to. If Labour were serious about restoring confidence in our criminal justice system, they could adopt those proposals that I put forward earlier this year.
Prison is a necessity if we want to restore law and order. The deterrence of custody, the incapacitation of those likely to re-offend, the opportunity to rehabilitate criminals and deliver justice for victims are all compelling reasons why prison works. As this Labour government abandons this fundamental tenet of criminal justice, the more our streets will descend into chaos, our communities will be blighted by crime and our people will lose faith in an equitable and fair society.
