‘Sharp shock’ call to reduce repeat offending

A Conservative politician has called for ‘sharp shock’ punishments to tackle the thousands of criminals coming before the courts with more than 10 previous convictions.

Figures from the Ministry of Justice show that in the year to September, 2013, 166,529 cases in England and Wales involved criminals who had been punished more than 10 times before.

In the previous year there were 172,063 such cases.

Tony Arbour, a member of the Greater London Authority Conservatives who requested the figures, said it the justice system was “clearly not working”.

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He said: “Prisons cost more than boarding schools and yet they appear to be seasonal all-paid-for retreats for certain individuals. This is a gigantic burden on our courts.

“We need to give first-time offenders an initial ‘sharp shock’ – harsher penalties, training and effective rehabilitation – to scare them out of a life of criminality.”

“If they have a drug problem, get them on a programme. If they lack vocational skills, train them up. There may be short term costs, but long-term gains for society. We will save the public purse huge amounts of cash if offenders learn their lesson the first time and ditch crime for good.”

Last month, The Yorkshire Post published research showing the number of criminals being given suspended sentences had soared. Almost one in three prison sentences across the country were suspended in 2012, up from just one in 50 a decade earlier, according to the Centre for Crime Prevention, a campaign group calling for harsher sentencing and zero tolerance policing.