News
- 06.09.2010 | Daily Telegraph Coalition ministers are going soft on crime, insists Tony Blair
- 06.09.2010 | Guardian Sir Ian Blair: “So, prison’s a party, is it?”
- 25.08.2010 | Prospect Spend less on prison
- 28.08.2010 | BBC News Cutting short term jail sentences ‘will not reduce crime’
Our Research
- Martin Wright Towards a Restorative Society
- Matrix Evidence Are Short-Term Prison Sentences Efficient and Effective?
Make Justice Work on Sky News
02.11.09
‘Scrap Farcical Two-Month Prison Sentences’
“Farcical” two-month prison sentences should be scrapped and replaced with tougher probation terms, according to ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith.
A report on the criminal justice system by his Centre for Social Justice calls for an end to jail sentences of two months or less, and the introduction of more closely monitored community sentences with a stronger focus on rehabilitation and treatment for addicts.
Read the full article here.
Make Justice Work in the New Statesman
02.11.09
Former Conservative leader rails against “farcical” system
Prison sentences lasting less than two months should be abolished and replaced by longer, tougher community order penalties, Iain Duncan Smith has said.
In a speech to be given on Monday outlining a revamp of the justice system, he calls short-term sentences “farcical” as there is no evidence they reformed persistent petty criminals. He claimed they too often substituted for community orders that were “toothless” in their current incarnations.
Read the full article here.
Make Justice Work on the BBC
02.11.09
Call to cut ‘farcical’ jail terms
Prison sentences of two months or less should be scrapped and replaced by tougher probation courses, according to Iain Duncan Smith.
…
Make Justice Work, a campaign to abolish short-term prison sentences, urged the Tory leadership to take up his call.
Director Roma Hooper said: “In reality we should be aiming to follow Scotland’s lead and abolish all sentences of under six months but this is a good start and a brave proposal from a key Tory think tank.
“Prison reform is often seen in zero sum terms but relatively small tweaks such as abolishing short-term prison sentences would have a colossal impact on improving Britain’s prisons and tackling the cycle of low-level crime blighting our society.”
Read the full article here.
Make Justice Work in the Times
21.10.09
Building prisons does nothing to reduce crime
Sir, Tensions between magistrates and prison governors over how to deal with offenders who are given short-term sentences add to the evidence that such sentences don’t work. Short-term prison sentences for low-level non-violent offenders are expensive, contribute to clogging up our already dangerously overcrowded prison estate and do nothing to alter the behaviour of these offenders. The public and our frontline criminal justice staff would be better served if money were diverted away from short-term prison sentences into robust alternatives to custody, which deliver greater value for money, are proven to be more successful at cutting reoffending behaviour, and would free up valuable resources in the prison estate.
This would shore up public faith in community sentences, give magistrates a real choice in their sentencing options and allow prison staff to concentrate on those offenders who are really meant to be there.
Roma Hooper
Director, Make Justice Work
Read this letter online here.
Make Justice Work in the Telegraph
08.10.09
Prison reform savings
SIR – Should the Prison Governors’ Association vote in favour of scrapping short-term prison sentences (report, October 6), this would be a major coup for rational reform.
The legislative system over the past decade has become increasingly geared towards locking people up without proper consideration given to the economics and effectiveness of handing out short-term prison sentences for low-level, non-violent crimes. Research we commissioned shows that millions could be saved if more offenders on short term prison sentences were diverted into robust alternatives to custody.
This would immediately reduce the enormous cost of our prison system, eradicate dangerous overcrowding in prisons and at the same time help cut reoffending.
Roma Hooper
Director, Make Justice Work
W1
Read this letter online here.
Make Justice Work in the Independent
Wednesday 7th October
The Big Question: How can we end the crisis in Britain’s overcrowded prisons?
Why are we asking this now?
Prison governors in England and Wales yesterday called for an end to all sentences of less than one year in a radical proposal to ease overcrowding. Paul Tidball, the Prison Governors’ Association president, warned ministers that cuts and overcrowding could lead to “widespread disorder” within the prisons system. He said: “Prison, the most expensive disposal option for the courts, should be reserved for those of highest risk to communities and citizens.”
Read the full article here.
Make Justice Work in Progress Magazine
Friday 28th August 2009
We need a more rational debate about crime and punishment
This week has seen the beginning of the usual banter leading up to the party conferences as well as the tendency to engage in political gimmickry (as seen by Chris Grayling’s reference to the Wire and Broken Britain). So the general public must be on their guard if they are going to be allowed access to any kind of rational, informed debate around those policies which will impact on their day to day lives, in particular crime.
Read the full article here.
Make Justice Work in the Times
Friday 10th July 2009
‘Lock ‘em up’ approach to low-level offenders must change
Of the people sent to overcrowded prisons by British courts, two thirds are given a sentence of less than 12 months, taking valuable resources away from serious offenders from whom the public need protecting.
The number of people receiving custodial sentences has risen inexorably in the past ten years – we now lock up people who ten years ago would never have fallen into the prison net.
Research shows that short-term prison sentences do not work. Reoffending rates remain persistently high for low-level offenders given custodial sentences, and locking them in cells is costing the State millions each year.
Although the Ministry of Justice has dropped the £3 billion plan to build three Titan prisons, six new “mini-Titans” are still planned at an even higher cost to the taxpayer. We need to stop locking up low-level, non-violent offenders on short-term sentences.
Instead, we must invest in more effective community-based sentences that help to pull those offenders back into society and away from crime.
Such a policy has already begun to take hold in the United States where there is a growing realisation that locking people up briefly is expensive, intensifies offending and does not work as punishment. In Scotland the ruling SNP stated its intention to phase out prison sentences of less than six months, replacing them with tough community sentences.
And, next week, the Transition to Adulthood Alliance, a group including virtually every significant justice policy organisation in Britain, will publish its latest findings, which will also call for a review of the policy of locking up any 18 to 24-year-old for less than six months.
But in England and Wales the “lock ‘em up” culture remains an intractable government policy. After 18 months of an economic downturn and last week’s spending review, it seems bizarre that, although other public services are coming under massive scrutiny, the Government is not willing to accept that short-term prison sentences are costing society billions each year.
We commissioned Matrix, an independent economic researcher, to undertake a study of one group of low-level offenders who make up a huge proportion of those who receive short sentences: drug users. We asked Matrix to study the cost benefit of locking up this group against diverting them onto robust community-based sentences that include intense drug treatment. The figures were astounding.
About 7,873 drug users were given sentences of less than 12 months in 2007, making up almost 10 per cent of the total number of offenders sentenced to prison that year. Our research suggests that society would have saved almost £1 billion had these drug-using offenders been given residential drug treatment instead of simply being thrown into a cell.
We are not calling for a root-and-branch change in Britain’s prison system. We are calling for a commonsense approach that is solvable and appropriate to the problem. We have evidence to prove that short-term sentencing does not work and that properly resourced community-based sentences do. Low-level crime is devastating to its victims, but blindly locking up offenders doesn’t give anyone a long-term payback.
• Roma Hooper is the founder and director of Make Justice Work
Make Justice Work in the Independent
Thursday 2nd July
Letters: Prison Sentences
Stop handing down useless, costly prison sentences
It was with great interest that we read Robert Verkaik’s article (29 June) on the performance of private prisons. As the article points out, the Government is committed to building five more private prisons to accommodate the rise in prison numbers. However there is scant evidence that prison, especially for people sentenced to less than 12 months, stops reoffending or represents value for money for the taxpayer.
This week marks the launch of Make Justice Work, a major new campaign aimed at reforming short-term prison sentencing in the UK. The prison population of England and Wales, currently at approximately 83,000, has risen massively in the last ten years, not because crime has increased but owing to a rise in the numbers of custodial sentences handed down to low-level, non-violent offenders.
New independent research published for this campaign shows that the majority of community sentences provide similar or better value for money and effectiveness than short-term prison sentences. Looking at short-sentenced drug-using offenders in 2007 alone, the research shows that society would have saved an estimated £1bn, throughout the offenders’ lifetime, had they been given residential drug treatment instead of being sentenced to 12 months or less in prison. The annual cost savings for the first six years post-sentencing would have been £60m-100m.
While the moral case for locking fewer people up is compelling, it is hard evidence that proves reform is really needed. All crime has a negative impact on society and specifically the immediate victims, but locking the perpetrators up ultimately does little to prevent future offending. Short-term prison sentences have a negligible, if not negative, impact on reoffending, while costing the taxpayer an obscene amount of money. We already have the highest rate of imprisonment in western Europe – we have to halt this trend before it is too late.
Roma Hooper, Director, Make Justice Work;
John Austin MP;
Humfrey Malins MP;
John Leech MP;
Baroness Gibson;
Lord Woolf, Lord Chief Justice, 2000-2002;
Lord Ramsbotham, Chief Inspector of Prisons, 1995-2001;
Sir Charles Pollard, Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, 1991-2001;
Lord Thomas of Gresford, Liberal Democrat Shadow Attorney General;
Stephen Bubb, CEO, ACEVO
Make Justice Work in the Guardian
Friday 25th June 2009
An invitation to reoffend
The short term prison sentence is a disaster for offenders and society. But there are alternatives.
It was with a heavy heart that I read of Alan Johnson’s pledge this week to revive the state crusade against antisocial behaviour. Our new home secretary was concerned that the government had been “coasting” on the issue. The prospect of more rhetoric about yob culture leaves me weary. But it’s further troubling because another spike in Asbo use will inevitably cause an increase in one of the most individually corrosive, socially useless and economically indefensible elements of our criminal justice system: the short-term prison sentence.
To read the article in full, click here.