Source · Select Committees · Justice and Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Paragraph: 43
How to read this label. It records the position parsed from the published government response. It is not an official government label and does not show whether action was delivered.
Custody is sometimes necessary, but it is expensive and fuels reoffending.
Conclusion
Custody is sometimes necessary, but it is expensive and fuels reoffending. Community orders are a sound alternative in many cases. They can take various forms, giving judges and magistrates the ability to tailor sentences to individual circumstances. They are demanding on the offender and help them stop committing crime, thereby protecting the public. Breach mechanisms mean that offenders are being held to account.
Paragraph Reference:
43
Government Response
Position Not Stated
HM Government · verbatim extract
Position Not Stated
10. This Government is clear that while we are imprisoning the most dangerous offenders for longer, delivering public protection is not just about better use of custody. The independent judiciary are able to consider whether a robust community sentence would be more suitable in some cases. 11. Community sentences can, and should, be tailored to address the causes of offending, in turn reducing reoffending and rehabilitating offenders more effectively than short custodial sentences. For instance, we know that over 50% of people sentenced to custody for up to 12 months (at a cost of £47,000 per year, per prisoner) go on to reoffend within a year. Contrastingly, the rate for those on Community Orders is 36% and 24% for suspended sentence orders with requirements3. 12. For offenders serving community sentences, probation professionals use their skills and knowledge to safely oversee and manage these offenders and can take action where offenders are not doing what is required. When an Order is returned to court, then the court could make the requirements of the order more onerous, impose a fine or even sentence the person to custody. 13. We welcome the Committee’s conclusion that breach mechanisms are working effectively to hold offenders to account for their actions. Breach mechanisms are an important part of the Probation Service’s role in delivering community sentences and give the public confidence that any individual who disregards a lawful order or consistently fails to comply with their community order is dealt with appropriately. 14. Our response to JHAC9 sets out in detail how the Government is improving community sentence delivery. 15. J
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