'GET TOUGH' PRISON POLITICS IS FAILING

Report damns knee-jerk Justice policies that uselessly filled jails

- DAVE BURKE

DESPERATION to be seen as tough on crime led to years of knee-jerk reforms that took the justice system to the brink of collapse, a damning report has found.

Governments focused too heavily on tough punishments rather than investing in cutting reoffending, the Independent Sentencing Review document says.

As a result, the system was left overwhelmed and ineffective, it found.

Today's report says that, in many cases, crimes should have instead been punished with community or suspended sentences.