Stephen Pollard

God into criminals that they will pay a severe price for their behaviour – it will be in vain.

This week, for example, research by the think tank Onward showed that last year thousands of burglars who have committed at least five breakins avoided prison. No fewer than 3,253 of them waltzed away from court. One had committed 26 burglaries and yet had still never been jailed.

The overall figures show a burglar now has to have had, on average, at least 12 previous convictions before being sent down – up from eight in 2007. Ludicrously, the Ministry of Justice responded to the report by saying, “Under this government the most serious offenders are more likely to go to prison and for longer.” In reality, hardened criminals are being sent a clear message by the criminal justice system – that even if you get caught, no one really gives a damn. That’s one reason why there were 285 fatal stabbings in England and Wales in 2018, the highest number in the 70 years since records began.

Earlier this year it emerged that in 2018 one individual was convicted of possession of a

THE Met Commissioner, Cressida Dick, spoke wisely in April 2017 when she said young thugs are “simply not fearful of how the state will respond to their actions”. She hit the nail on the head when she concluded that “harsher and more effective” jail terms are necessary for teenagers who repeatedly offend. That was well over two years ago and nothing of consequence has been done to change this. There were 22,041 offences involving blades and other weapons in England and Wales last year – the highest rate since 2010 and an increase of more than a third in four years. As Ms Dick put it in 2017, young offenders “don’t see prison as a particularly likely threat”.

Take one recent case that has outraged many – the killing of Manchester Grammar School scholarship student Yousef Makki. The boy who admitted killing Yousef with a flick knife will spend just eight months in custody after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice and possessing a knife. Another boy was given a four-month detention and training order after he admitted possessing a knife.

Yousef’s mother said that both defendants treated her and the judicial system with contempt as they walked into court. “One of them used to moonwalk past us and laugh, the other one just used to smirk at us,” she told the BBC.

The Prime Minister’s policing pledge is a decent start to tackling crime. But that’s all it is – a start.