Prison Population (Hansard, 28 February 1980)

§ 13. Mr. Soley
asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will seek to set up an interdepartmental working party with instructions to report urgently on ways of reducing the prison population.

§ Mr. Brittan
I can assure the hon. Member that the recommendations on reducing the prison population put forward in the fifteenth report of the Expenditure Committee and the May committee's report are already being examined by the Home Office and other Departments concerned.

§ Mr. Soley
If the Minister accepts that prison overcrowding is at crisis levels, should not we take more radical action and look at ways of reducing the length of sentences, and in some cases not sentence people to prison when imprisonment does not work?

§ Mr. Brittan
It is a question not so much of evolving new alternatives to custody but of encouraging the use of existing alternatives to custody, which we certainly favour doing in appropriate cases. As my right hon. Friend and I have made clear on many occasions, both in the House and elsewhere, except in cases of violent crimes, which require long custodial sentences, we recognise that the deterrent effect that is required can often be achieved by shorter prison sentences than are sometimes imposed.

§ Mr. Kilroy-Silk
What about mentally disordered offenders?

§ Mr. Brittan
I am anxious to remove as many of them as possible from the prison system. My right hon. Friend is doing what he can in that respect. We are engaged in consultations with the Department of Health and Social Security in order to get as many such prisoners as possible out of prison and into the appropriate accommodation.

§ Mr. Ioan Evans
As we have one of the largest prison populations in Europe, and as it costs more than £100 a week for each prisoner, will the hon. and learned Gentleman look at some of the experiments that have been carried out in some of the Scandinavian countries which are aimed at reducing the number of people who are kept in prison?.

§ Mr. Brittan
Naturally, as we are responsible for running, financing and maintaining so large a prison system, we are anxious to consider all ways of reducing the strain that at present exists. Any proposals that come forward, whether from Scandinavia or from climes further south, will be most carefully considered on their merits.