§ 11. Mr. Joplingasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action he intends to take with regard to the call for tougher action against seasoned professional criminals, made by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner in his report for 1970.
§ Mr. MaudlingI would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to a Question 1572 by the hon. Member for West Ham. North (Mr. Arthur Lewis) on 17th June.—[Vol. 819, c. 126–7.]
§ Mr. JoplingDoes my right hon. Friend agree that there is a danger of organised crime increasing? If he is satisfied with the Commissioner's report that prison holds few terrors for this hard core of criminals, I hope he will not hesitate to make life in prison a good deal more uncomfortable for them.
§ Mr. MaudlingI am not sure that I share that view. I am concerned not so much with the total growth of crime, which is slackening off, as with the growth of violent crime, which is advancing rapidly. The courts have available considerable powers of punishment, and it would be wrong for a Home Secretary to try to lay down guide lines as to how they should operate.
As for conditions in prison, I believe that the deprivation of freedom is the real punishment and that, on the whole, conditions in prison should be primarily decent in order to encourage people to rehabilitate themselves.
§ Mr. Arthur LewisIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that his original reply, to which he referred, was unsatisfactory? Is he further aware that at the moment it is often quite profitable not only to commit a crime but, even when one gets caught, to find that there is no punishment or penalty to be paid for it? I see a look of consternation on the right hon. Gentleman's face.
§ Mr. MaudlingI expressed consternation that I have not been able to satisfy the hon. Gentleman by my answer. Broadly speaking, penalties available to the courts for punishment of serious crime are substantial. If there are any individual suggestions which the hon. Gentleman wishes to make, I should be glad to hear them.