Towards a New Justice System: Shorter Sentences, More Tech and Community Driven Rehab
In September 2024, the Labour government took the drastic action to reduce the automatic release date for some offences from 50% to 40% of the total custodial sentence. Several prisoners will be released even earlier, subject to supervision, and liable to be recalled should they re-offend. In the face of a looming crisis, governors warned in early July that prisons would be “full within the week.” The government's response has been described by some think tanks as an effective short-term response.
Having taken office on July 5, Kier Starmer’s Lord Chancellor, Shabana Mahmood, was immediately faced with a severely underfunded prison and probation system. The Ministry of Justice published that 60% of prisons were considered overcrowded. As a former Director of Public Prosecutions, the PM would surely have been aware of the worrying trends of increasing populations and the rise in serious crime. As far back as 2018, Rory Stewart, the former prisons minister, detailed how English and Welsh prisons were in a pathetic state, describing a dystopian image of piles of rubbish and broken windows, complemented by a general apathy from the government to the state of the prisons and probation system. When considering the current cost per prisoner, which is reported to be as high as £51,000 per prisoner per annum, the prison system is incredibly expensive. On top of this, reoffending rates show it is largely ineffective in its primary role of rehabilitating offending individuals.
The 2024 riots led to a spike in the number of incarcerations and the rapid processing of criminals through the justice system. This demanded more space in the already packed prison. This example highlighted several key issues in the dysfunction of the prison and probation system. For one, the massive court backlog is indicative of structural issues in the Ministry of Justice. With nearly 70,000 outstanding criminal cases in the crown court alone, the number of future prisoners currently on bail is sure to be very high. As those on bail are sentenced, this continues to pile on pressure to an already struggling system to create space for new arrivals. Alongside this, police station jails are pressured to take in more dangerous criminals refused bail, which increases their workload.
The solution may be to further expand and embrace community-led rehabilitation as an alternative to the incarceration of low-level offenders or those who have already served part of their sentence. To that end, the policy of reducing the automatic release of prisoners onto supervised reintegration into the community. This serves a dual function: it allows the system to avoid low-level offenders becoming trapped in a cycle of increasingly longer sentences and frees up space in prisons for more violent and immediately threatening members of the community. The crucial distinction further refines the process of determining community or custodial sentencing on a case-specific basis. For example, ensuring that cases of first offences where a gang affiliation is not suspected, even in cases of violence, are referred to community-based sentencing programmes.
As of March 2024, 55% of juvenile detention was a result of violence against the person. This volume of young people being institutionalised is indicative of a problematic approach to crime amongst young people specifically. Currently, 24% of inmates in England and Wales are aged between 21 and 29.Though current sentencing guidelines do stress leniency towards youths, this does not go far enough to ensure that low-level crimes are met with a long-term strategy. Community-driven rehabilitation and extensive monitoring in a public environment are needed to prevent long-term youth incarceration and reoffending.
A crucial aspect of this is to ensure more investment is directed to the expanding existing probation funds and increase the supply of electronic tags to prevent an over-reliance on arbitrary checks on those on remand. Thus, a dual approach to reforming sentencing (as posited by the Prison Reform Trust) includes reforming the sentencing guidelines to ensure greater community-focused rehabilitation where possible and greater long-term investment into probation provision with the use of technology rather than salaried officers to carry out monitoring of those on parole.
In conclusion, the current policy of shortening sentences has the potential to turn a desperate situation into a more cost-effective and comprehensive system. For the moment, the government’s decision will ensure that prisons don’t become immediately full and more dangerous than they already are. Implemented properly, a reduction in prolonged custodial sentences can be the start of a shift in attitudes toward rehabilitation and allow a long-term structural change. This will produce a reduction in reoffending and improve the currently low rates of post-incarceration employment
By: Ali Gohari
