Criminals could get tags instead of jail time to end reoffending merry-go-round

Criminals will not be given sentences of just a few months in a bid to end the merry-go-round of reoffending, under plans presented to ministers.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is considering options to tackle the crisis in prisons as the country comes dangerously close to running out of cells.

Possible changes include lowering the point of automatic release so those serving standard fixed-term sentences are let out after serving 40% of their time instead of 50% at present. This does not apply to the most serious violent and sexual offenders. The Prison Governors Association has said this must happen “immediately” or the country will run out of available cells, putting the public in danger.

Courts could be stopped from handing out sentences shorter than 12 months as figures show those sent away for just a few months are more likely to reoffend. Criminals would be given tough community sentences instead with strict conditions and electronic tagging used to keep offenders out of trouble.

More than half of those serving a sentence of less than 12 months go on to commit another crime, while the reoffending rate for those punished with Suspended Sentence Orders is 24%. Courts would still be able to hand out shorter sentences to domestic abusers and stalkers so that victims can be protected, as well as to those who have breached court orders.

Experts have warned that short sentences lead to a revolving door where criminals endlessly go from jail back into the community and then back to jail again.

The Tories had proposed axing short jail terms in the Sentencing Bill, but the legislation was abandoned when the election was called.

The latest Ministry of Justice figures, published on Friday, show jails currently hold 87,453 inmates, with the total number of spaces standing at 88,864. Ms Mahmood is expected to give a speech setting out what first steps she plans to take to deal with the crisis within the next fortnight.

At a Downing Street press conference on Saturday, Keir Starmer confirmed that the early release scheme brought in by the Tories, which sees prisoners let out up to 70 days before the end of their sentences, would continue to remain in place for now. He said: "We've got too many prisoners, not enough prisons. That's a monumental failure of the last government on any basic view of government to get to a situation where you haven't got enough prison places for prisoners, doesn't matter what your political stripe, that is a failure of government.

"It's a failure of government to instruct the police not to arrest. This has not had enough attention, in my view, but it's what happened. We will fix that, but we can't fix it overnight and therefore it is impossible to simply say we will stop the early release of prisoners and you wouldn't believe me if I did say it."

The PM was questioned about comments made by James Timpson, the new Prisons Minister, who previously warned: "We are addicted to punishment. So many of the people who are in prison in my view shouldn't be there." Asked if he agreed with Lord Timpson's remarks, Mr Starmer told journalists: "I've sat in the back of I don't know how many criminal courts and watched people processed through the system on an escalator to go into prison.

"And I've often reflected that many of them could have been taken out of that system earlier if they'd had support, and that is why what we want to do with our youth hubs and on knife crime is really, really important, because I want to reduce crime."

The former director of public prosecutions added that if young people, particularly boys, are offered support at a "point of intervention" in the early teenage years, it could ensure some of them "do not get on that escalator" to imprisonment.