Peter Parka
Well-Known Member
I was disappointed when Ken Clarke failed to be elected Conservative leader a few years ago and here's a good reason why - a politician that dosen't pander to tabloid, shit stirring crap and speaks sense regardless of all the useless, "feed them bread and water" brigade!
:clap:clap:clap
Justice Secretary plans 'radical' prison policy change
More than 85,000 people are currently in prison in England and Wales Vast sums are being spent "warehousing" people in outdated prisons without any proof it protects the public, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke is to say.
In a speech later, he will say he is amazed at the growth in the prison population and he will demand a radical new approach to cut re-offending.
It will involve paying private firms and voluntary groups according to how many prisoners they rehabilitate.
Prisons must focus on "education, hard work and change," Mr Clarke will add.
'Victorian England' In his first major speech since taking office, Mr Clarke will say that prison has too often proved "a costly and ineffectual approach that fails to turn criminals into law-abiding citizens".
"My first priority is the safety of the British public," he will say.
"But just banging up more and more people for longer without actively seeking to change them is what you would expect of Victorian England."
Daniel Sandford,
Home Affairs Correspondent, BBC News
"Prisons work!" Michael Howard declared in his Conservative Party conference speech in 1993.
From that moment, the prison population in England and Wales started to rise.
Labour, trying to out-tough the Tories on crime, did not stop the trend when they took office.
The increase was driven by a combination of tougher sentences handed out by judges under pressure from politicians, and more crimes involving violence and drugs.
Penal reformers pleaded that prison was not always the answer, but although ministers often agreed in private, nothing ever seemed to change.
It has taken a man who has run the prisons before to publicly question the wisdom of the policy.
Even so, Ken Clarke is not promising to cut the prison population, only to look at cost-effective ways of preventing reoffending.
He's not saying prison doesn't work. But he is saying it doesn't always work.
That is almost twice the figure in 1992 when Mr Clarke was last in charge of prisons as home secretary - an increase he will say he would have dismissed as "impossible and ridiculous" if someone had predicted it at the time.
On Wednesday, MSPs will decide whether to approve major changes to the Scottish justice system, which would see fewer short prison sentences, with non-prison alternatives used instead.
The Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill aims to cut reoffending by boosting these alternatives to jail, although plans for a presumption against prison terms of six months or less have been cut to three months following opposition.
In his speech in London, Mr Clarke will suggest that he agrees with the need to reduce the use of short sentences, which make it "virtually impossible" to rehabilitate prisoners successfully.
Instead, he wants to shift the emphasis to "intelligent sentencing".
"This means prisons that are places of punishment, but also of education, hard work and change," he will say.
"It means rigorously enforced community sentences that punish offenders, but also get them off drugs and alcohol and into employment."
Costlier option? The government plans to use the voluntary and private sectors to rehouse, rehabilitate and find work for released prisoners, with bodies only paid if their efforts lead to a significant fall in reoffending.
These reforms will hopefully pay for themselves by reducing the costs elsewhere within the criminal justice system, Mr Clarke will add.
But Prof Malcolm Davies, from Thames Valley University's law school, said sending criminals to jail was often the cheapest option.
"It costs a lot more to have persistent offenders out on the street," he told the BBC.
"If you add in the full cost, other than sending to people to prison, which is the processing of the police, the prosecution time, the cost to insurance, the cost and trauma to victims."
Juliet Lyon, of the Prison Reform Trust, said the sytem needs change as it is not working.
"You only have to look at the reconviction rates for those short sentence people - over 60% reconvicted within a year of release - to realise that we've got very poor value for money," she said.
Reoffending rose by 8% for adults between 2006 and 2008, and nearly half of offenders sent to prison are reconvicted within a year.
BBC
:clap:clap:clap
Justice Secretary plans 'radical' prison policy change
More than 85,000 people are currently in prison in England and Wales Vast sums are being spent "warehousing" people in outdated prisons without any proof it protects the public, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke is to say.In a speech later, he will say he is amazed at the growth in the prison population and he will demand a radical new approach to cut re-offending.
It will involve paying private firms and voluntary groups according to how many prisoners they rehabilitate.
Prisons must focus on "education, hard work and change," Mr Clarke will add.
'Victorian England' In his first major speech since taking office, Mr Clarke will say that prison has too often proved "a costly and ineffectual approach that fails to turn criminals into law-abiding citizens".
"My first priority is the safety of the British public," he will say.
"But just banging up more and more people for longer without actively seeking to change them is what you would expect of Victorian England."
Daniel Sandford,
Home Affairs Correspondent, BBC News
"Prisons work!" Michael Howard declared in his Conservative Party conference speech in 1993.
From that moment, the prison population in England and Wales started to rise.
Labour, trying to out-tough the Tories on crime, did not stop the trend when they took office.
The increase was driven by a combination of tougher sentences handed out by judges under pressure from politicians, and more crimes involving violence and drugs.
Penal reformers pleaded that prison was not always the answer, but although ministers often agreed in private, nothing ever seemed to change.
It has taken a man who has run the prisons before to publicly question the wisdom of the policy.
Even so, Ken Clarke is not promising to cut the prison population, only to look at cost-effective ways of preventing reoffending.
He's not saying prison doesn't work. But he is saying it doesn't always work.
That is almost twice the figure in 1992 when Mr Clarke was last in charge of prisons as home secretary - an increase he will say he would have dismissed as "impossible and ridiculous" if someone had predicted it at the time.
On Wednesday, MSPs will decide whether to approve major changes to the Scottish justice system, which would see fewer short prison sentences, with non-prison alternatives used instead.
The Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill aims to cut reoffending by boosting these alternatives to jail, although plans for a presumption against prison terms of six months or less have been cut to three months following opposition.
In his speech in London, Mr Clarke will suggest that he agrees with the need to reduce the use of short sentences, which make it "virtually impossible" to rehabilitate prisoners successfully.
Instead, he wants to shift the emphasis to "intelligent sentencing".
"This means prisons that are places of punishment, but also of education, hard work and change," he will say.
"It means rigorously enforced community sentences that punish offenders, but also get them off drugs and alcohol and into employment."
Costlier option? The government plans to use the voluntary and private sectors to rehouse, rehabilitate and find work for released prisoners, with bodies only paid if their efforts lead to a significant fall in reoffending.
These reforms will hopefully pay for themselves by reducing the costs elsewhere within the criminal justice system, Mr Clarke will add.
But Prof Malcolm Davies, from Thames Valley University's law school, said sending criminals to jail was often the cheapest option.
"It costs a lot more to have persistent offenders out on the street," he told the BBC.
"If you add in the full cost, other than sending to people to prison, which is the processing of the police, the prosecution time, the cost to insurance, the cost and trauma to victims."
Juliet Lyon, of the Prison Reform Trust, said the sytem needs change as it is not working.
"You only have to look at the reconviction rates for those short sentence people - over 60% reconvicted within a year of release - to realise that we've got very poor value for money," she said.
Reoffending rose by 8% for adults between 2006 and 2008, and nearly half of offenders sent to prison are reconvicted within a year.
BBC
