Stuart Brown: Why more prison does not mean less crime

However, responding to my question, David Cameron then asserted that prison was still needed for persistent minor offenders and even for fine defaulters. Unbeknown to me, his Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, was about to address a different audience with a very different message, pointing to the doubling in prison numbers since he was last in office and asking whether "proper thought had been given to whether this was the best and most effective way of protecting the public against crime".

The apparent split appears to have narrowed and it is to be hoped the "rehabilitation revolution" may really be underway

At a time when courts face closure and yet further cuts in legal aid budgets are threatened, it is right that spending on prisons should come under ever closer scrutiny. The argument should not however be primarily one of money. Re-offending rates are highest amongst those serving short sentences (under 12 months). Prison quite simply does

not work. The reasons are obvious. The only education on offer comes from hardened fellow inmates. There is no time to tackle underlying drug or alcohol problems, no opportunity to prepare for release and no support from the Probation Service on release when new pressures may well have arisen.

There are effective and demanding community alternatives offering lower rates of reconviction and costing but a tiny fraction. The equivalent reoffending rate is almost half (36 per cent) with this region having still lower rates and some of the best in the country.

Community penalties are not soft options. Causes of offending and

behaviour patterns are addressed. Many who sit in the criminal courts know that the man or woman before them will much more easily manage a few months inside than having to look at his or her own offending behaviour and seek to change this.

Of course, there are those for whom prison is the only option and not merely those who can be described as violent and dangerous. Domestic house burglars are not among the short-term prison population nor are those who kill when driving dangerously. But does the public really expect the shoplifter or those more properly to be regarded as social nuisances to be locked up for a few months only to be released

and reoffend?

I can recall, when sitting hearing appeals, an offender sentenced to a short prison sentence for fishing without a licence and another for urinating (admittedly in breach of an anti-social behaviour order) in a shop doorway. Prison is not intended for these sorts of cases.

Media attention criticising so-called "soft" sentencing rightly focuses upon the more serious cases and research shows that the public, when questioned and in full possession of all the material, will often agree that for less serious cases, even those involving repeat offenders, a non-custodial option is more appropriate. Payback penalties involving unpaid work not only meet local communities' needs but also can begin to instil a work ethic. Electronic tagging is a real restraint and can prevent anti-social behaviour in city centres.

It may be countered that prison is only used a last resort when

community penalties have been tried and failed.

Even if that were true, and it is not always the case, there are new and effective Probation Service programmes, threatened through

budgetary cuts, which offer better prospects of eventual

rehabilitation. Restorative justice programmes bringing offenders (in suitable cases) face to face with their victims are one particularly promising option. Many persistent offenders have longstanding drug problems, but there are not enough clinic places available.

If short-term sentences are to be curtailed, then prison governors and officers will be better equipped to work with the more serious

offenders.

Proper programmes of education and training in readiness for eventual release can be developed and implemented. Those with mental health problems can be identified and transferred to specialist hospitals for treatment. The problem of illicit drug use in prisons can be more firmly tackled.

The economic argument appears to be accepted by all. We now have both a prison population and a crime rate which are amongst the highest in Western Europe. It is time for a new approach.

The new Justice Secretary has always been regarded as a man of the people. If his arguments are to win over his Cabinet colleagues and the public, then the Probation Service and others must be properly financed to allow them to deliver effective alternatives.

Stuart Brown QC is the Leader of the Bar on the North Eastern Circuit and a Recorder of the Crown Court. The views expressed are personal.