Faith in justice

David Gauke, the Justice Secretary, is anxious to reform the penal system to encourage rehabilitation. He is not the first occupant of the post in its various guises to seek to do so. When he was home secretary in the Nineties, Kenneth Clarke cut prison numbers and reduced sentences at a time when crime was soaring. The backlash hurt the Tories and the policy was reversed by Michael Howard and toughened up even further by Labour.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with encouraging prisoners to go straight, provided it is remembered that the principal function of prison is to punish. It is also true that short sentences make rehabilitation harder; but that is not a reason to remove incarceration as a penalty. The courts already think long and hard before passing a custodial sentence, so those inside tend to be recidivists. Mr Gauke wants to increase the provision of day release work and training schemes to improve the chances of freed offenders getting jobs. It is encouraging that more than 200 additional businesses have joined a scheme to hire ex-offenders. But the Justice Secretary needs to beware using early release and community sentences to cut the prison population to reduce costs.

He might also consider a suggestion from Lady Newlove, the Victims’ Commissioner, for greater honesty in sentencing. Again, this is not a new idea, but the fact remains that when the public hears that an offender has been jailed for four years yet serves two, it harms their faith in the system. Mr Gauke needs to address that perception.