GOVERNMENT PUBLISHES MUCH-ANTICIPATED SENTENCING REVIEW
The government has recently published its much-anticipated Independent Sentencing Review, led by the former Lord Chancellor, David Gauke.
The Review’s principal task has been to solve the current overcrowding crisis in prisons. Its key recommendations are estimated to reduce the prison population by around 9,800.
Four of the nine recommendations are listed below:
- Revisit the statutory purposes of sentencing – recommends amending the statutory purposes of sentencing to emphasise the importance of protecting victims and reducing crime.
- Strengthen alternatives to custody in the community – recommends revising the sentencing framework to ensure sentencers can take full advantage of the flexibility of community sentencing, including financial penalties and ancillary orders.
- Reduce reliance on custody – the expected recommendation to legislate to ensure short custodial sentences are only used in exceptional circumstances.
- Incentivise progression from custody to community – prisoners can be released earlier through “earned progression”, defined as rewarding compliance with prison rules.
The review identifies two primary risks to effectively implementing the recommendations:
- The probation system is left unable to cope with the additional demands.
- Politicians fail to resist the trend of introducing more and longer sentences for every crime.
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