In the last three years, 80,000 criminals have been released early from prison because the government failed to build enough places. We are determined that early release will not be introduced again, so we will redevelop the prison estate and increase capacity as necessary to stop it. Under Labour, the number of foreign criminals in our prisons has more than doubled. We will extend early deportation of foreign national prisoners to reduce further the pressure on our prison population. many people feel that sentencing in Britain is dishonest and misleading. So we will introduce a system where the courts can specify minimum and maximum sentences for certain offenders. These prisoners will only be able to leave jail after their minimum sentence is served by having earned their release, not simply by right.
At the moment, many prisoners leave jail and lapse back into a life of drink, drugs and re-offending. We will never bring our crime rate down or start to reduce the costs of crime until we properly rehabilitate ex-prisoners. So, with a Conservative government, when offenders leave prison, they will be trained and rehabilitated by private and voluntary sector providers, under supervision. We will use the same approach that lies behind our welfare reform plans – payment by results – to cut re-offending, with organisations paid using savings made in the criminal justice system from the resulting lower levels of crime. Drug and alcohol addiction are behind many of the crimes that are committed on our streets, but the treatment that too many addicts receive just maintains their habits. We will give courts the power to use abstinence-based Drug rehabilitation orders to help offenders kick drugs once and for all. We will introduce a system of temporary bans on new ‘legal highs’ while health issues are considered by independent experts.
To reform our system of rehabilitation further, we will:
*apply our payment by results reforms to the youth justice system;
*engage with specialist organisations to provide education, mentoring and drug rehabilitation programmes to help young offenders go straight; and
*pilot a scheme to create Prison and Rehabilitation Trusts so that just one organisation is responsible for helping to stop a criminal re-offending.
Monday, 19 April 2010
Extracts from the Labour Manifesto
We have provided over 26,000 more prison places since 1997. There are more criminals in prison - not because crime is rising but because violent and serious offenders are going to prison for longer. We will ensure a total of 96,000 prison places by 2014. More EU and other foreign prisoners will be transferred abroad, and we will work to reduce the number of women, young and mentally ill people in prison. Any spare capacity generated will reduce costs while protecting the public.
For offenders not sentenced to prison we have brought in tough new 'Community Payback': hard work in public, wearing orange jackets. We will extend nationwide the right for local people to vote on what work offenders do to pay back to communities they have harmed.
We will always put the victim first in the criminal justice system. We are creating a National Victims Service to guarantee all victims of crime and anti-social behaviour seven-days-a-week cover and a named, dedicated worker offering one-to-one support through the trial and beyond. The compensation offenders have to pay to victims has been increased, and we will now ensure victims get this payment up front.
To help protect frontline services, we will find greater savings in legal aid and the courts system - increasing the use of successful 'virtual courts' which move from arrest, to trial, to sentencing in hours rather than weeks or months. We will use the tax system to claw back from higher-earning offenders a proportion of the costs of prison. Asset confiscation will be a standard principle in sentencing, extended from cash to houses and cars. Every community will have the right to vote on how these assets are used to pay back to the community.
For offenders not sentenced to prison we have brought in tough new 'Community Payback': hard work in public, wearing orange jackets. We will extend nationwide the right for local people to vote on what work offenders do to pay back to communities they have harmed.
We will always put the victim first in the criminal justice system. We are creating a National Victims Service to guarantee all victims of crime and anti-social behaviour seven-days-a-week cover and a named, dedicated worker offering one-to-one support through the trial and beyond. The compensation offenders have to pay to victims has been increased, and we will now ensure victims get this payment up front.
To help protect frontline services, we will find greater savings in legal aid and the courts system - increasing the use of successful 'virtual courts' which move from arrest, to trial, to sentencing in hours rather than weeks or months. We will use the tax system to claw back from higher-earning offenders a proportion of the costs of prison. Asset confiscation will be a standard principle in sentencing, extended from cash to houses and cars. Every community will have the right to vote on how these assets are used to pay back to the community.
Extracts from the Lib Dem Manifesto
Liberal Democrats believe that once a criminal has been caught, it is vital that the punishment they are given helps to turn them away from crime, and set them back on the straight and narrow. Too many politicians have talked tough, meting out ever-longer prison sentences, but doing far too little to tackle reoffending and to stop crime happening in the first place. As a result, the government is spending more and more on prisons, but those released from them are as likely as ever to commit more crimes. We will:
*Make prisoners work and contribute from their prison wages to a compensation fund for victims. As resources allow, we will increase the number of hours prisoners spend in education and training.
*Introduce a presumption against short-term sentences of less than six months - replaced by rigorously enforced community sentences which evidence shows are better at cutting reoffending.
*Move offenders who are drug addicts or mentally ill into more appropriate secure accommodation.
*As a consequence of these changes, be able to cancel the Government's billion-pound prison building programme.
*Make prisoners work and contribute from their prison wages to a compensation fund for victims. As resources allow, we will increase the number of hours prisoners spend in education and training.
*Introduce a presumption against short-term sentences of less than six months - replaced by rigorously enforced community sentences which evidence shows are better at cutting reoffending.
*Move offenders who are drug addicts or mentally ill into more appropriate secure accommodation.
*As a consequence of these changes, be able to cancel the Government's billion-pound prison building programme.
The Conservatives' Line on IPPs
Helpfully provided by a Conservative MP's office today:
IPPs, or Indeterminate sentences for Public Protection, were introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2003. They can be imposed by the courts when an offender aged 18 or over is convicted of a serious specified violent or sexual offence for which the maximum penalty is 10 years or more.
In practice, what an IPP means is that rather than being released at the end of a sentence like most prisoners, IPP sentenced prisoners serve a minimum period of imprisonment or 'tariff' which is determined by the trial judge and designed to meet the needs of retribution and deterrence, and after that period, the IPP prisoner's release is not automatic, but will only occur once the Parole Board is satisfied that the risk of harm they pose to society is acceptable. The period of an IPP sentenced prisoner's incarceration is therefore indefinite. When they are finally released, IPP prisoners are subject to an IPP licence for at least 10 years, and may be recalled to prison throughout if deemed a danger to the public.
We are well aware of the problems that the IPP sentence has caused as a result of its implications not being sufficiently well thought through. Despite the Government acknowledging the problem, due to insufficient capacity and resources IPP sentenced prisoners still find it very difficult to access the courses in prisons which they need to complete in order to be eligible for release. They are therefore being held with little hope of progressing towards release, and at the same time are contributing to prison overcrowding. Secondly, despite the changes made in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act implemented in 2008 which set a minimum tariff of 2 years for IPP sentenced prisoners, the sentence is still being handed down to more offenders than the system can cope with. In December 2009 only 75 IPP prisoners had been released and stayed out of prison, while approximately 70 newly sentenced IPP prisoners were arriving every month. There are approximately 6,000 IPP prisoners in custody, the equivalent of 7% of the total prison population, of whom nearly half have passed their minimum tariff.
We intend to undertake a wholesale review of how IPPs operate as part of our sentencing programme in government. We also believe that our 'min-max' sentencing proposals will address some of these problems. Through setting many offenders a minimum and maximum time to serve in prison, with the possibility of the prisoner earning release before the maximum through good performance, sentencers will be provided with an alternative sentence for those offenders whose rehabilitative progress they feel needs to be particularly carefully monitored prior to any release decision. The existence of a maximum will also ensure that prisoners do not remain in prison indefinitely.
IPPs, or Indeterminate sentences for Public Protection, were introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2003. They can be imposed by the courts when an offender aged 18 or over is convicted of a serious specified violent or sexual offence for which the maximum penalty is 10 years or more.
In practice, what an IPP means is that rather than being released at the end of a sentence like most prisoners, IPP sentenced prisoners serve a minimum period of imprisonment or 'tariff' which is determined by the trial judge and designed to meet the needs of retribution and deterrence, and after that period, the IPP prisoner's release is not automatic, but will only occur once the Parole Board is satisfied that the risk of harm they pose to society is acceptable. The period of an IPP sentenced prisoner's incarceration is therefore indefinite. When they are finally released, IPP prisoners are subject to an IPP licence for at least 10 years, and may be recalled to prison throughout if deemed a danger to the public.
We are well aware of the problems that the IPP sentence has caused as a result of its implications not being sufficiently well thought through. Despite the Government acknowledging the problem, due to insufficient capacity and resources IPP sentenced prisoners still find it very difficult to access the courses in prisons which they need to complete in order to be eligible for release. They are therefore being held with little hope of progressing towards release, and at the same time are contributing to prison overcrowding. Secondly, despite the changes made in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act implemented in 2008 which set a minimum tariff of 2 years for IPP sentenced prisoners, the sentence is still being handed down to more offenders than the system can cope with. In December 2009 only 75 IPP prisoners had been released and stayed out of prison, while approximately 70 newly sentenced IPP prisoners were arriving every month. There are approximately 6,000 IPP prisoners in custody, the equivalent of 7% of the total prison population, of whom nearly half have passed their minimum tariff.
We intend to undertake a wholesale review of how IPPs operate as part of our sentencing programme in government. We also believe that our 'min-max' sentencing proposals will address some of these problems. Through setting many offenders a minimum and maximum time to serve in prison, with the possibility of the prisoner earning release before the maximum through good performance, sentencers will be provided with an alternative sentence for those offenders whose rehabilitative progress they feel needs to be particularly carefully monitored prior to any release decision. The existence of a maximum will also ensure that prisoners do not remain in prison indefinitely.
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