Ken Clarke: Radical reform is needed to break the cycle of crime

But the truth is that the justice system is not doing nearly enough to support this aim. Despite record increases in spending on criminal justice in recent years, and the highest ever prison population, almost half of all adult offenders still reoffend within a year of their release from custody.

That means new crimes committed, and new victims created, because prisons are failing to get criminals to go straight once they've done their time.

Without radical reform prison is at risk of becoming just an expensive way of giving society a rest from offenders who will simply go out and commit crime again once they are let out.

This does nothing to protect the public in the long-term, and according to the National Audit Office, costs our economy more than 7bn a year.

That is why I have set out new plans to break this destructive cycle of offending and reoffending. I am determined to improve public safety by making punishment more effective and targeted. We must have tougher, more constructive regimes in our jails, and offenders must be made to make amends to victims and communities.

Prisons and young offender institutions need to be places of hard work, not enforced idleness.

We need to get more prisoners used to the routine and discipline of a full working week. Prisoners at Wetherby Young Offenders Institution are already going out into the community and helping elderly residents with gardening and outside work as part of a scheme called Wetherby in Support of the Elderly.

I want this type of work to be more common in our prisons and young offender institutions.

Community punishments must also involve more strenuous unpaid work as well as greater use of curfews and tagging.

I am also proposing changes to sentencing to reinforce the independence of our judges and magistrates and to provide greater clarity and common sense.

Prison will always be the right place for serious or repeat offenders who must serve the sentence ordered by the court. We will not return to the early release scheme which saw 80,000 prisoners let out of prison before they had done their time.

Short prison sentences are often an important tool when criminals do not respond to fines or community punishments. We are not abolishing them. What we are doing is exploring how to create punishments that remove foreign national prisoners who do not have a legal right to stay in the country.

This prevents their continued imprisonment at the taxpayer's expense, and by reducing prison numbers, creates the space needed for proper schemes that will prepare prisoners for the straight and narrow when they're released.

But rehabilitation is not only about hard work. Sentences should address the causes of crime. For example, drug abusers who commit crime must be punished, but if we want to stop them reoffending they must also be helped off drugs. Those with serious mental health problems need to be in hospital, not prison.

Government cannot achieve a genuine rehabilitation revolution acting alone. I want to give greater freedom to our excellent prison and probation staff to allow them to innovate and make the most of their experience, and also harness the expertise of the voluntary and private sectors to reform offenders. We will reward what works – providers will only receive taxpayer funding if they are successful in turning offenders away from crime.

I want to see the people of Yorkshire able to play a more central role in their local criminal justice system, with opportunities for voluntary and community providers to run services and more decision-making locally.

West Yorkshire is already using an Integrated Offender Management approach to protect the local community, involving police, probation and other agencies, to ensure resources are directed at those offenders who present the greatest risk of reoffending, often following a short prison sentence.

These reforms are radical but realistic. They complement other measures being taken by this Government to give control and accountability to local people, increase transparency and draw on skills from right across our society. These common-sense plans will focus on what punishments and rehabilitation actually work and by breaking the cycle of crime actually make the people of Yorkshire safer.

Ken Clarke MP is the Justice secretary