Sentencing commission call to solve prison problems

Prison reform call

Monday, 07, Jul 2008 12:00

The government should consider setting up a sentencing commission to 'depoliticise' controversial decisions, the Prison Reform Trust (PRT) believes.

Its report published today says the establishment of such a body would also help tackle the overcrowding crisis in England and Wales' prisons. Less than 100 spare places were available in June 2008 out of a population exceeding 83,000.

Judges need clearer and simplified guidance to avoid sentences gradually increasing, the PRT says. The move would also help ministers' advice on the prison population's impact on new laws and ensure better public understanding of sentencing policy and practice.

"It's time to take the political sting out and introduce some sense into sentencing policy," PRT director Juliet Lyon commented.

"A thoughtfully constructed sentencing commission could be an authoritative source of trusted information for politicians, sentencers and the public alike."

The report highlights imprisonment for public protection introduced in the 2003 Criminal Justice Act, which has led to the detention of 4,000 people.

Institute for Criminal Policy Research director Mike Hough said it was time for the sentencing advisory panel and the sentencing guidelines council to be replaced.

He said a "well-resourced, unitary sentencing commission" could "build on the good work of the council".

"But it should also have an explicit function of engaging with the public, and explaining the realities of current sentencing practice. In this way it could help reduce the politicisation of sentencing policy and practice, by acting as an institutional buffer between the political process and penal practice," he finished.