Jack Straw dilutes pledge to keep danger men behind bars

Sex attackers, robbers and child abusers will escape lengthy jail terms in a dramatic softening of sentencing rules.

Jack Straw will today announce plans to stop the courts locking up thousands of criminals for indefinite periods.

The move by the Justice Secretary jeopardises a Labour promise to give the public unlimited protection from the worst sex offenders and other violent convicts.

In exceptional cases, a rapist or child sex attacker could benefit from the shake-up - which is aimed at easing overcrowding in prisons.

The Tories accused the Government of undermining the regime of Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection which were brought in in April 2005.

Nick Herbert, the party's justice spokesman, said: "The Government's open-ended sentences were introduced with a fanfare three years ago and are now being progressively watered down.

"By restricting them in this way, many dangerous criminals will be released, including repeat offenders, regardless of the risk they pose to the public.

"Far from taking tough decisions, Labour is giving criminals a break."

Indeterminate sentences, introduced by David Blunkett, can be given to offenders convicted of any of 153 sexual or violent crimes.

These include rape, sexual offences against children, kidnapping, malicious wounding, placing explosives, cruelty to children and robbery.

Judges can apply the sentence in any case where they believe the criminal will pose an ongoing danger to the public.

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A minimum tariff - a period in which the offender has no prospect of being released - is set.

The offender can then be held indefinitely beyond that point until the authorities are satisfied they are no longer dangerous.

Under the amendments tabled by Mr Straw, courts will not be able to impose an indeterminate sentence if the associated tariff is fewer than two years.

A guilty plea - even where the criminal is caught red-handed - is rewarded with a lower tariff.

Hundreds of criminals will benefit from the rule change every year - cutting the spiralling prison population.

For those given more than two years, the rules will remain unchanged.

Prisoners have won a number of test cases against indeterminate sentences in the High Court.

Last summer, judges ruled that Mr Straw had acted unlawfully by keeping inmates inside for longer than their minimum jail term.

The High Court heard that because of jail overcrowding, criminals had been unable to get places on courses which might have allowed them to prove their suitability for release.

More significantly open-ended terms have been blamed for chronic overcrowding in jails, which has led to inmates being housed in police cells.

Ministers had expected the sentences would be used only sparingly by courts.

MPs will today debate proposals to free more suspects from jail on bail, wearing electronic tags.

If they are found guilty when their case reaches court, any time spent in the community on a curfew will be knocked off their sentence.

This means offenders will be treated as if they had been behind bars - even though they were free to walk the streets.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "Indeterminate sentences will still be given for a wide range of sexual and violent offences.

"Our amendment introduces a minimum tariff of two years below which an offender would not receive one.

"The exception is, if they have previously committed one of a range of very serious offences, they can still receive an indeterminate sentence even if their current violent or sexual offence does not reach the twoyear threshold."

It emerged yesterday that a £244million project to monitor dangerous criminals has collapsed in yet another Whitehall IT disaster.

The "C-Nomis" computer system was supposed to share information between prison and probation staff to allow newly-freed convicts to be properly supervised.

Work on the project was frozen last summer after costs more than doubled to £155million.

It will now be introduced in a watered-down format in prisons only, the Government said yesterday.