Douglas Carswell's Blog

Whose idea of justice?

The Ministry of Justice today unveils proposals for tougher community sentences. 

This will, we are told, mean stricter sentences, the wider use of electronic GPS tagging, curfews and travel bans. At the same time, charities and others will be involved in rehabilitation projects.

Fine. But I hope that all this talk of tough community sentencing is not another way of saying that fewer wrong doers will be sent to prison. I suspect it is.   

During a recent visit to a prison, I got chatting to the senior management. I asked them, all very matter of fact, what they thought their prison was for.

“To keep the public safe and rehabilitate offenders” came back the reply. To my dismay there was no mention of punishment. Not even a hint of the fact that prison exists to deprive people of their liberties because they have violated the liberties of others. 

“But surely” I responded “if prison only exists to protect the public and rehabilitate, you undermine the case for locking up anyone who was unlikely to re offend?”  There was an awkward pause.  

This is, I fear, the prevailing attitude amongst those who preside over the criminal justice system, from the Ministry of Justice down. 

We need instead to make those who run the criminal justice system accountable to the people whose taxes fund it.          

From November, every county and large town will elect a Police and Crime Commissioner. Initially responsible for overseeing policing priorities, we need to ensure that these directly elected individuals start to hold to account those who run our prison system.

If more electronic tagging and curfews are the answer, great. Let different Crime Commissioners, in different parts of the country, commission such approaches to offender management. If it works, they will no doubt be re-elected with a thumping majority.  If it turns out to be a useless fad, they won’t.

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