Punishment may boost crime level

The Ministry of Justice’s assessment found proposals for intensive community punishments could increase reoffending if the essential punitive element forced out rehabilitation requirements.

The probation union Napo also warned that tougher community sentences would only lead to a higher proportion of offenders failing to meet the requirements.

Its assistant general secretary Harry Fletcher said there was no evidence GPS satellite tracking would cut crime or save costs.

Under the proposals, new GPS tags could be used to track an offender’s whereabouts to deter further offending.