Prison Population (Hansard, 21 March 2002)

§ Beverley Hughes

The Halliday review of the sentencing framework has given us a unique opportunity to examine what we should do to prevent, tackle and punish offending behaviour. The recent rise in the prison population suggests that sentences are not currently being targeted as effectively as they could be. Prisons are focusing on housing more and more prisoners for whom it is not demonstrably the right option. The Government is currently considering how to take the sentencing reforms forward with a view to publishing our conclusions in a White Paper to be published in the Spring. Whatever the population pressures, the Government is uncompromising in its response to serious and dangerous offenders. Where there is a need to protect the public, this should take place in a secure environment. Communities must be protected from such offenders.

As part of this I am very keen to look imaginatively at alternatives to full time custody, and in particular would like to explore options for piloting intermittent custody and introducing a new suspended sentence (custody minus). These sentences, alongside the tougher and more flexible community sentences we already have, as well as those being proposed, will give sentencers the confidence to explore alternatives to short custodial sentences. Easing pressure on the shorter-term population will enable the Prison Service to focus on providing longer term prisoners with the regimes, training and programmes they need to correct their offending behaviour.

Home detention curfew (HDC) is a key resettlement tool which gives us the opportunity to monitor an offender during their transition back into the community. It is also a useful tool in helping us manage the prison population by reducing over-crowding at the same time as improving the resettlement and rehabilitation opportunities for less serious offenders. From the beginning of May prisoners serving sentences of between three months and under 12 months, with the exception of those convicted of violent or drugs offences within the previous three years, and prisoners who have any history of sexual offending, will be released on home detention curfew for the latter part of their sentence unless there are compelling reasons not to do so. All offenders not statutorily excluded will be subject to a risk assessment and released on HDC only where it is safe to do so. Under the HDC scheme released prisoners serve the remainder of their custody period at home under electronic curfew usually from 7pm to 7am. At any one time we expect that this measure will remove up to 1,350 prisoners from prison accommodation, in addition to the 1,800 who are already on the scheme. The impact of these arrangements and any further extensions of the HDC scheme will be kept under close review.