Ippr: Clarke’s ‘liberal convictions’ welcome

Ippr director Nick Pearce comments ahead of Ken Clarke’s unveiling of the green paper on justice:

“It is very welcome to see a Conservative politician have the courage of his liberal convictions and argue that the prison population should fall, not rise.

“Our prisons are overcrowded and locking so many people up costs this country a fortune. More importantly, prison doesn’t work for many offenders – because a lack of rehabilitation schemes in prisons mean they are more likely to reoffend on release.

“Well designed alternatives to prison for less serious offenders have been shown to work and they are much less costly.”