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'Only jail those who really deserve it and need it - Lord Woolf
Last updated at 23:52pm on 17.04.07
Lord Woolf: Wants a cap on prison places
Former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf called for a cap on prison places saying no-one should go to jail unless they really deserve it.
The overcrowding and the high costs of imprisonment mean only the violent should be locked up, he told MPs.
The call from the highly influential retired judge added to the pressure on ministers from senior serving judges to cut numbers going to prison and sentence more criminals to "community" punishments outside jail.
Lord Woolf, who before his retirement in 2005 spent four years battling with ministers to try to reduce the length of sentences and keep non-violent offenders like burglars out of jail, said at Westminster that the number of prisoners should be capped.
He told the Home Affairs Select Committee that prison places should be reserved for "those who really deserve and need it."
He added: "The primary use of prisons must be for violent offences."
Lord Woolf, who as Lord Chief Justice was the most senior judge in England and Wales, said judges should take into account the cost of incarceration when they impose a sentence.
They should, he said, choose a cheaper option if suitable.
Lord Woolf told MPs: "The judge should know how much the sentence he is imposing will cost the public, and if there is a suitable cheaper option then he should choose that. "We have not got over the message just how expensive incarceration is. The cost of sentences should be set out in clear and realistic terms."
He said a budget limit for prisons should be set out. Judges, Lord Woolf, said, should then be told: "These are the resources that the Government can provide for the prison population and you must see that your sentencing guidelines achieve a prison population within those resources where the commodity of a prison space is used in the most constructive way."
He said: "What we know is that the more money spent on building prisons, the less money will go on rehabilitating and reforming prisoners.
"We've got to make a proper assessment as to how much of the economy of this country should go to imprisoning individuals."
Lord Woolf appealed for politicians to listen. "It would be a brave government to say we're not going to have an open door policy for prisons in this country. We have many people in prisons now who don't need to be there."
His call for less use of prison comes alongside a campaign by his successor, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, for judges to be able to take prison overcrowding into account when they hand down sentences.
The current Lord Chief Justice wants judges to be able to spare criminals a prison sentence if jails are so full that attempts to rehabilitate them become impossible.
Tory leaders echoed Lord Woolf's criticism that overcrowded jails - the current prison population is just under a record 81,000 - fail to rehabilitate prisoners.
But Shadow Home Secretary David Davis accused Lord Woolf of putting the public at risk with his solution. "While he has identified the right problem, he has not identified the correct solution which is to actually address the chronic lack of capacity in our jails," Mr Davis said. He added: "Criminals should be sentenced according to crime not the government's convenience. Extra prison places are vital in ensuring not only that prisoners are punished but they are effectively rehabilitated, as well as adequately protecting the public."
Later Lord Woolf spoke in the House of Lords against plans partly to privatise the Probation Service, which supervises community sentences.
He said: "The one thing that the criminal justice system needs more than anything else is an opportunity to settle down and take advantage of the changes that have been made, to restore its confidence in its ability to deliver what is needed to make our criminal justice system more effective.
"That is true of the courts, it's true of the probation service and it's true of the prisons."
Lord Woolf said his great concern was whether it was the right time to "set out upon a fundamental change to the structure of the probation service."
Reader views (10)
I could agree with less people going to prison if we had a middle-ground on punishment as community service has been shown to be as much of a waste of time as ASBOs.
How about a day in the stocks for first-time offenders and a flogging for a second offence. Quick, painful and hopefully enough of a deterent to stop someone becoming a "career" criminal?
- Graham, Reading, England
Lord Woolf reportedly wishes to see a cap on the number of criminals we incarcerate - in order to make this proposal work, shall we ask the nation's criminals to impose to a cap on the number of crimes they perpetrate?
- Ted Staples, London
Well he's right - there are no police to catch the criminals, they are all hiding in their offices. There are no prisons, the Labor adminsitration believes it is not right to lock up the "socially un-priviliged" people who happen to burgle/attack someone. This political culture is making Britain the laughing stock of the world.
- Georgie, London
Well this really does take the biscuit... now every criminal in the country will have a field day knowing they may not face prison. Why not make prison a place of punishment instead of holiday and maybe then not so many will re-offend?
- Sarah, London
Will someone please sack this buffoon. Day after day, he brings the judiciary into disrepute. The problem with judges like him is that they arrogantly believe that they are always right. They live in a different world to be the rest of us and until we start employing judges from a wider group of people (rather from a rather limited pool of old barristers), we will continue to have judges whose views are so markedly different to the public that they serve; and they should recognise that they are there to serve the public - they are public servants (as much as they hate being reminded of that).
- Anthony, London
He's not a former Lord Chief Justice - he's a very silly man.
- Ollie, London
Oi woolfy! you and your mates concentrate on finding people guilty or innocent and let the politicians work on the publics demand for more prisons to be built.
- Andy, London
Presumably he really means only those people who aren't: habitual criminals, murderers, killers by manslaughter, those who kill by dangerous driving with no licence or insurance, those who use violence to rob or who can't claim 'a broken home and no father figure' as a reason for their behaviour.
That way, the prisons can be full of council tax non-payers, those who refuse to recycle, children who play outside and make a noise and those who park in the wrong place.
- Chris, Beckenham
It's bloody madness! So a criminal can steal anything of mine they want, damage my property and not get punished? Only if they are "violent"? Well what is crime if not violence against another person? Violating my RIGHTS? Violating my right to peace, my right to have my property undisturbed and so on?
Who is going to pay me back for my lost property, repair the damage? Not the criminal, that's for sure!
What the heck is going on in this country!
- Trunk, US
I can hear the thugs laughing over this now. Less jail, more crime. What a country.
- T A Paul, West Palm Beach
