Tougher punishments outside prison are being considered as part of a government review into sentencing.
The review will be launched on Tuesday by Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood in a bid to ease overcrowding in the prison system.
Led by former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke, the review will be activated on the same day that around 1,100 inmates are set to be released early as part of the government’s policy to free up prison space.
Latest figures show there are just over 2,000 free spaces in prisons across England and Wales – and they are expected to reach critical capacity again by July.
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Mr Gauke will explore tougher punishments outside of prison while ensuring there remains enough capacity in the system to incarcerate the most dangerous offenders, the government has said.
Among the alternatives that will be examined are community sentences and fines.
Methods used by other countries are being assessed for inspiration, including the US, where Texas has used good behaviour credits to reduce sentences.
Nudge technology, sobriety tags and home detention curfews will also be looked at in the review, with watches and apps used to encourage offenders to comply with certain conditions.
Mr Gauke, who argued there was a “very strong case” for abolishing jail terms of six months or less when he was justice secretary in 2019, said it was clear “our prisons are not working”.
“This review will explore what punishment and rehabilitation should look like in the 21st century, and how we can move our justice system out of crisis and towards a long-term, sustainable future,” he added.
Analysis: Rescuing prison system will take much more than a review
Bringing in former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke to review prison sentencing seems like a shrewd move from Labour.
UK prisons are full and the new government’s initial attempts to deal with that by releasing some prisoners early was met with hostility from the opposition benches.
If a Tory, with expertise in the brief, makes recommendations on how to reduce the prison population, it buys some much-needed political cover for a policy that could be tricky to sell to the public and the papers.
But what Mr Gauke’s appointment can’t cover up is that the broken UK justice system needs cash and at the forthcoming budget it may get cuts instead.
The current justice secretary Shabana Mahmood has been making the case behind the scenes and even wrote a letter to the prime minister arguing for more money.
That’s because getting back from the brink of full prisons will take much more than a sentencing review.
It will require change across every dysfunctional aspect of the justice system, from the overwhelmed probation service to the court backlogs to the slow progress of prison building.
Departmental cuts will make that necessary reform almost impossible to achieve.
So while Mr Gauke may bring answers and cross-party support, plans without money behind them are unlikely to make much impact, and it will still be Labour that gets the blame.
The review will also specifically consider whether current sentencing for crimes committed against women and girls fits the severity of the act and ask whether more can be done to tackle prolific offending.
Alongside the sentencing review, the government has also committed to creating 14,000 extra prison places and outlining a 10-year capacity strategy later this year.
Mr Gauke is stepping down as a trustee of the Prison Reform Trust while carrying out the review.
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Ms Mahmood has already taken steps to try to reduce the prison population in England and Wales, announcing plans in July to temporarily reduce how much of their sentences inmates must serve behind bars from 50% to 40%.
About 1,700 prisoners were released from jails across the two countries from 10 September in a bid to cut overcrowding.
The latest inmates to be freed early will be released from Tuesday, with expanded eligibility to include those serving sentences of five years or more.
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Ms Mahmood, who is also the Lord Chancellor, said Labour “inherited prisons in crisis, within days of collapse”.
“This review, along with our prison building programme, will ensure we never again have more prisoners than prison spaces,” she added.
Mark Day, deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust, said the “current capacity crisis has bought our criminal justice system close to collapse” and emergency measures “are not a long-term solution”.
“We urgently need to get to grips with runaway sentence inflation which has contributed to chronic levels of overcrowding and driven prison numbers and our use of imprisonment up to an unsustainable level,” he added.
The findings of the sentencing review will be submitted by next spring, while the results are expected to take effect by March 2026 at the earliest.
