Retribution, Rehabilition and Reform

One thing that bothers me a lot is my inability to come up with the be all and end all solution to our well-documented problems in the Criminal Justice System (the "CJS"). Successive governments have sought to address the issues of how to bring down crime, run the prisons and rehabilitate offenders, and whilst I have looked upon their tinkerings with interest, I have yet to be convinced that any one of them has come up with a definitive solution.

In particular, I am torn between my soft-liberal-fluffy wish to rehabilitate reformed offenders back into the bosom of society and my damn-'em-all-to-hell-they-deserve-it impulse to lock 'em up and throw away the key.

Given that unofficial figures to soar), our prisons are almost at full capacity and convicted criminals persistently re-offend (in 2003, 61% of prisoners were re-convicted within two years of release), I am forced to conclude that the CJS's purpose of deterrence is failing to cut ice with criminals.

So how do we get the Criminal Justice System's snarl to be sufficiently scary to deter criminals?

In my view, the first priority should be that convicted criminals are properly punished. If this requires a prison sentence, then send them to prison. If our prisons are full, we should build more. A prison term should be as long as the original sentence and there should be no automatic right to parole, (HRA or no HRA).

The Government should stop meddling with the criminal law and allow judges greater flexibility in sentencing. In particular, the life sentence should mean life, and should be retained as an option for judges when sentencing offenders who have committed the most serious crimes. Instead of continuously passing new laws which criminalise ever more specific acts, the police and CPS should be compelled to use effectively our existing criminal laws to charge and prosecute.

Once we have tried and punished criminals, how do we prevent them from re-offending? The continuous stream of embarrassing stories highlighting the incompetence of various parts of our CJS should serve as a wake-up call to all of us. It is not enough to punish an offender and then to release him and forget about him. We must ensure that an adequate programme of education is offered in prison and that the prison, probation and (in light of recent disclosures) immigration services are made to communicate with and assist each other. With this compulsion for co-operation must come increased transparency and accountability. The probation service must do more than cast a distracted eye over its charges, and instead must actively assist ex-offenders in securing housing and employment (although what sort of landlords and employers could be found for them, I cannot say).

Sadly, as I am only too aware, the sheer volume of offenders, the staggering cost and the megalithic unwieldiness of its institutions have and will continue to make any reform of the CJS virtually impossible until politicians and civil servants are willing to rebuild the whole piece for the long term.