Not time to go soft on sentencing

BOTH Richard and I write about crime and punishment this week — him on chemical castration for extreme sex offenders; me about the end of what we used to call the “short, sharp shock” for more conventional criminals - muggers, burglars, car thieves and the like.

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The Independent Sentencing Review, published on Thursday, proposes permanently abandoning jail terms of less than one year.

So that’s it. No more three months for pickpocketing; six for pinching someone’s car off their drive; nine for starting a pub fight and launching a nasty, unprovoked assault. Instead, fines, community service, ankle tags and driving bans.