New law will force courts to rationalise prison sentences say Conservatives
New legislation will pressurise courts into rationing jail sentences because the Government are failing to provide the number of prison places needed, the Conservative Party has claimed.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said the Management of Offenders Bill would require judges to take existing prison capacity into account when sentencing offenders.
Speaking to the Press Association, Mr Davis cited a letter from Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland in which she acknowledges that the bill will require the Sentencing Guidelines Council to “issue guidelines taking into account the capacity of the correctional services”.
The independent body is responsible for issuing sentencing guidelines to courts in England and Wales.
Mr Davis described Baroness Scotland’s letter as “an admission by Government that their prison policy has failed.”
“They have failed to provide more prison places despite the fact that our prisons are bursting at the seams”, he said.
“Those who deserve to be in prison should be in prison – sentencing should be determined by the crime not by the number of prison places available.”
A spokesman for the Home Office responded by saying that the Government had provided “more prison places than ever before” and were introducing the new laws in a bid to reduce re-offending through the better management of offenders.
“The Government has always said that prison places should be reserved for serious, persistent or dangerous offenders and use should be made of robust community sentences where appropriate,” said the spokesman.
The Management of Offenders Bill, which was announced in the Queen’s Speech at the end of November, introduces a range of measures to increase the use of non-custodial sentences as a form of punishment and includes plans for a new fines system and the extended use of electronic tagging.
