Even Reform wants prison reform - be bold, Labour

So, the long-awaited recommendations of the independent review of sentencing, chaired by former justice secretary David Gauke, have landed. The recommendations heavily trailed over the last couple of weeks are largely welcome, if tempered by a pragmatism that comes from the dire straits His Majesty’s

- ANDREA COOMBER

Prison and Probation Service finds itself in. At the same time, beyond urging less punitive rhetoric, the review has swerved from addressing the bigger picture of why the government faces a capacity crisis in prison.

A quick reminder of the review’s context paints the gravity of the situation. Despite spending billions of pounds on new prisons, the government faces an untenable rise in prison numbers of about 30 per cent over the next few years. Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, has admitted: “We cannot build our way out of this crisis.” Emergency measures have bought some time, but the government soon faces running out of prison cells, or a “total breakdown of law and order”, to quote Mahmood once more.

The sentencing review’s primary answer is to legislate to ensure that short custodial sentences are only used in exceptional circumstances in favour of community sentences, to extend the use of suspended sentences, to introduce new models of “earned progression” that will offer many prisoners an opportunity to be released early (as opposed to the current method of automatic early release), and reforms to how people can be recalled to prison. The combined impact of these measures is estimated to save around 9,800 prison places. More generally, the review criticises previous approaches that put punishment for its own sake above the need to reduce crime.