Doubling the prison population has slashed crime

The UK Peace Index study has received strong coverage this week for its optimistic message of falling crime in the UK. Amusingly little of this focused on the seemingly relevant fact that far more criminals are in prison, unable to commit crimes outside prison.

Peter Cuthbertson of the Centre for Crime Prevention is quoted in the Daily Mail:

"Crime is much lower than 20 years ago because twice as many criminals are in prison.

"But the UK is still a high crime society and people are right to worry about this.

"A better police presence on the streets has been shown both to cut crime and to improve people’s perceptions of crime rates."

Releasing prisoners who are still a threat to the public is failing

In response to dramatic figures on reoffending, Peter Cuthbertson of the Centre for Crime Prevention is quoted in the Daily Express:

“Hundreds of thousands of crimes are committed simply because we choose to release prisoners who are still a danger to the public. Longer prison sentences of two years or more protect the public for the duration of the sentence. Tougher sentences also have much lower re-offending rates.

“Long sentences for serious offenders would be better for everyone.”

Women prisoners are a core of hardened criminals

In response to the Justice Minister Helen Grant's claim that "Women offenders are a highly vulnerable group, they commit crime because of that vulnerability and earlier failures to protect and support them", Peter from the Centre for Crime Prevention is quoted in today's Sun commenting that Britain's women prisoners are “are hardened criminals who make decent people’s lives a misery”.

Last year more than 20,000 women went before the courts with 11 or more previous convictions yet the total female prison population is around 4,000 - a figure that includes prisoners from previous years.

Given the courts tend to bend over backwards to avoid sending women to prison already, and in light of how many serious, repeat offenders of both sexes avoid prison, the Minister's call for more women prisoners to be given ineffective community sentences instead of jail time is therefore deeply concerning.

73% caught carrying knifes avoid prison

Peter Cuthbertson is quoted twice in today's Daily Express on the slight fall in the number of people given a prison sentence for carrying a knife: “These figures are an example of how rarely prison is used even for serious offenders. They send out a message to criminals that carrying a knife will not be taken seriously by the courts.”

Wasting police time

Today's Sun reveals Leicester Police has been hanging woolen pom-poms from trees in the hope that brightening up the area will reduce fear of crime. This seems a less than direct route towards making residents feel safer. Peter Cuthbertson is quoted: “The best way to reduce fear of crime is to catch criminals.”

Naivety about restorative justice

Today's Express reports on another case of restorative justice being used as an alternative to prison, as a serial offender who committed more than 70 thefts had his sentence halved for writing a letter to his victim. The CCP's Director said:

“Stiff prison sentences have been proven to work in tackling serious offenders. The naive belief that they can be replaced by contact between criminals and their victims is a risk to public safety. It won’t take long for all criminals to work out they can beat the system with insincere letters and escape proper punishment.”

Commentary on the latest offending histories statistics

Peter Cuthbertson was quoted in yesterday's Daily Mail and today's Daily Star on the latest data showing how many crimes are committed by repeat offenders, and the overuse of cautions and other alternatives to serious punishments.

Cuthbertson said:

"These figures are a mix of good and bad news. The crime rate did fall slightly from last year, just like the previous nine years. But the number of serious offenders with 15 or more previous convictions rose 59% from 65,000 in 2002 to 103,000 in 2012. There were 7,500 more violent and sexual offenders.

"This suggests we could cut crime dramatically by locking up more serious, repeat offenders. They're the ones who are responsible for a fast-growing percentage of all crimes. Unfortunately the number of prison places hasn't kept pace at all with the number of serious, repeat offenders, and last year only one in four serious offences led to a prison sentence.

"It is appalling that there were 45,000 cautions for theft or burglary. There were another 14,400 cautions for violence against the person. Most worrying is how many fully suspended sentences are being handed out for serious offences - it rose from 2,075 in 2002 to 30,651 in 2012."

Media coverage for Revolving Door Community Sentencing report

This week's Centre for Crime Prevention report into the failure of Community Sentences was covered by the Daily Telegraph, The Times, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, the Sun, the Huffington Post, the BBC and ITV and a number of local newspapers.

Peter Cuthbertson of the Centre for Crime Prevention appeared on ITV's Daybreak programme, debating Juliet Lyon from the Prison Reform Trust, Radio 5 Live's Victoria Derbyshire show, and nine local BBC radio programmes.

New report reveals the failure of revolving door community sentencing

Research from the Centre for Crime Prevention reveals that the current revolving door system of community sentences is failing to protect the public, and is producing higher reoffending rates than all but the shortest prison sentences.

Data from Freedom of Information requests reveals that almost 8,000 criminals sent to prison in 2011/12 had previously been given 11 or more community sentences - and 407 were given 21 or more. More than three quarters of those sent to prison had previously been given at least one community sentence, and more than half of all offenders had previously been given at least one community sentence.

Click here to read the report,including a full regional breakdown

The key findings of the report are:

§  81,594 (76%) of the 107,688 criminals sent to prison in 2011/12 had previously been given at least one community sentence before later committing the offences that resulted in a prison term. Of these offenders:

·         68,485 (64%) were given 2 or more community sentences;

·         37,516 (35%) were given 5 or more;

·         7,783 were given 11 or more;

·         1,784 were given 16 or more; and

·         407 were given 21 or more community sentences

§  221,405 (54%) of the 407,838 criminals convicted of a criminal offence in 2011/12 had previously been given at least one community sentence

·         120,546 (30%) were given 3 or more;

·         91,321 (22%) were given 4 or more; and

·         51,830 (13%) were given 6 or more community sentences

§  Those sentenced to lengthier prison sentences tend to be the most hardened criminals. Even so, the longer the prison sentence, the lower the reconviction rate – with all but the shortest prison sentences having lower reoffending rates than community sentences. The one year reoffending rate is:

·         35.6% for all adults given a community sentence – resulting in 123,675 offences

·         64.1% for adults on a community sentence who were given Supervision and Drug Rehabilitation - resulting in 16,644 offences

·         30.7% for adults sentenced to between 4 to 10 years in prison (ie serving at least two to five years) – with the prisoner of course unable to commit any offences outside prison while held inside

·         15.0% for adults sentenced to more than 10 years (ie serving at least five years) – with prisoners committing no offences outside prison while they remain inside

·         4.7% for adults serving indeterminate and life sentences – with prisoners committing no offences outside prison while they remain inside

§  90,029 community sentences were given to criminals guilty of more serious indictable offences – and fewer than 1 in 8 (12.4%) of those were for a first offence

·         66.4% went to those with 3 or more previous convictions

·         31.0% went to those with 11 or more previous convictions

·         23.2% went to those with 15 or more previous convictions

§  The areas of England and Wales with the highest one year reconviction rates by adults given community sentences or a suspended sentence are:

1	Durham Tees Valley	44.1%
2	Northumbria	43.2%
3	Lancashire	39.0%
4	York and North Yorkshire	37.8%
5	West Mercia	37.2%
6	Nottinghamshire	36.9%
7	Cumbria	36.7%
8	Wales	36.1%
9	Hampshire	35.6%
10	Norfolk and Suffolk	35.6%

§  The areas with the greatest number of reoffences by adults given community sentences or a suspended sentence are:

1	London	18,097 reoffences
2	Wales	11,592
3	Greater Manchester	10,732
4	Staffordshire and West Midlands	9,454
5	West Yorkshire	8,277
6	Northumbria	7,957
7	Durham Tees Valley	7,494
8	Lancashire	6,416
9	Hampshire	5,541
10	Surrey and Sussex	5,228

Centre for Crime Prevention commentary on foreign rioters

Peter Cuthbertson from the Centre for Crime Prevention responded to today's front page Daily Mail story that only 15 out of over 200 foreign rioters have yet been deported since August 2011.

Peter also did a segment on LBC's Nick Ferrari show this morning, discussing the lax treatment of foreign rioters.

CCP Mirror article on Justice Secretary's comments on smacking

In today's Daily Mirror, Peter Cuthbertson from the Centre for Crime Prevention argues against the NSPCC over smacking children. In a newspaper interview, Chris Grayling said he had smacked his children when they were younger, and defended the practice.

Reoffending statistics confirm need for tougher sentencing

In response to the latest data on reoffending by criminals, Peter Cuthbertson of the Centre for Crime Prevention told the Daily Express:

Tough sentences don’t just protect the public while the prisoner is inside.

These figures show that prison terms above four years also have much lower reoffending rates than community sentences. We need to increase prison terms.

Because of parole, a four year prison sentence usually means only two years served, rightly or wrongly.

Police are right to take youth crime seriously

In response to the latest figures on arrests of under-18s, Peter Cuthbertson told Politics.co.uk:

These figures reflect a fall in offending, but youth crime remains a major problem and police are right to take it seriously.

Nearly all of these 200,000 arrests were for serious crimes like violence, theft and burglary. It is vital for public safety that strong punishment follows arrest for young thugs.

CCP comments on new CPS guidelines

In response to the new guidelines for the Crown Prosecution service, Peter Cuthbertson was quoted in yesterday's Daily Telegraph:

It is very worrying that new reasons to avoid prosecutions are being proposed.

 Crime should not be shrugged off on grounds of proportionality.

This morning, Cuthbertson argued on BBC Radio Humber alongside Karl Turner MP and representatives from the CPS and local police. He said:

I think people are right to be very concerned. First of all, no offence ever feels minor to the victim and it's often so-called minor offences that do the most to ruin people's quality of life. Second, there's so much evidence that zero tolerance of less serious offences is the key to ridding an area of serious crimes. Usually by the time someone is caught they have already committed a string of offences so it's very dangerous not to take it seriously at this point.

Already the CPS takes a view that it won't proceed with cases that haven't much chance of prosecution so that's not new. I think the key line in the new guidance was that they need to consider "[t]he cost to the CPS ... where it could be regarded as excessive when weighed against any likely penalty". I think that's the point: we have extremely light penalties for so many crimes. Even those sent to prison for more serious offences only get an average of 9 months in prison. If prosecutors feel punishments are so light it's not worth taking criminals to court then it's the punishments that should be changed so that's no longer true.

Telegraph mentions Sentencing Gap report from the CCP

In today's Telegraph, Wesley Johnson reflects on the overuse of cautions. He repeats figures from the Centre for Crime Prevention's Sentencing Gap report:

It comes after a report by the Centre for Crime Prevention found earlier this month that more than 90,000 of the worst serial offenders avoided jail last year as the numbers soared by a quarter in five years.

They were handed cautions, fines and community sentences by police and the courts after going back to crime. 

Campaigners said there were now more serious, repeat offenders on the streets than there were jail places, as the figures fuelled fears that the criminal justice system is soft on repeat offenders. 

The number of repeat offenders with at least 15 previous convictions or cautions rose by a third last year to 108,119 from 81,204 in 2006/7, while the number with at least 10 previous convictions or cautions was up by a quarter from 112,956 to 140,168.

Heffer says more prisons needed to protect the public

In his column in today's Daily Mail, Simon Heffer attacks Labour's opposition to more prisons. He mentions the findings of last week's report from the Centre for Crime Prevention, the Sentencing Gap:

"Labour has opposed plans to build more prisons. Given that more than 90,000 criminals with several serious convictions are at large because of our already too lenient penal policy, how does that square with the need to protect the public?"