Violent criminals, armed robbers, major drug dealers and potentially even sex offenders could face shorter time in jail under a review launched by Labour.
Former Tory MP David Gauke, leading a sentencing shake-up for Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, has insisted that ‘controversial’ changes will be ‘necessary’ to reduce prison numbers.
His remarks show Labour will not be cutting short sentences just for low-level offenders but also for dangerous criminals.
He told a University of Law podcast: ‘If we’re going to make a substantial difference, we have to look at those who are serving relatively long sentences.
‘[They] will have to be released sooner if we are serious about not exceeding capacity.
‘We will come forward with recommendations about ways in which we can at the very least control the growth of the prison population over the next few years because we have run out of space.
‘But there is no getting away from the fact that almost any proposals that are effective in terms of controlling the prison population will have opposition.
‘They will be controversial. They will be difficult. But, nonetheless, it is necessary.’
Mr Gauke claimed reducing the number of inmates serving short jail sentences – such as those for theft and non-violent crimes – would not have a great enough impact on the size of the jail population.
He told the podcast hosted by legal journalist Frances Gibb: ‘If we are going to keep control of our prison population, this isn’t just going to be done on short sentences.
‘The only way you can address that is the very large number of people we’ve got in prison who are in there for a reasonable length of time and whether they need to spend all of that time behind bars in the way they currently do.’
Mr Gauke, justice secretary in prime minister Theresa May’s Cabinet, confirmed the three main areas of his recommendations will be sending offenders to prison for ‘less long’, broader use of community punishments instead of jail and wider use of rehabilitation schemes to cut offending.
The review was set up to ‘explore tougher punishments outside of prison’ – including house arrest – and it is due to be published in the spring. Sentences for murder will not be affected.
Earlier this week, Ms Mahmood reactivated emergency measures, known as Operation Safeguard, which allows offenders to be locked up in police stations cells rather than prisons as men’s jails in England and Wales are 99 per cent full.
She warned the prison system is ‘close to critical capacity’ just seven months after she launched a scheme which lets criminals out of jail early in a bid to free-up space.
Her programme allows most criminals to be released after serving just 40 per cent of the sentence given by a court.
The Ministry of Justice has refused to say how many have been freed under the scheme so far but it is believed to run to five figures.
The prison population stood at 87,556 on Monday, up 140 in a week.
