Hasty reforms 'behind inmate rise'

The Commons justice committee said hasty legislation had been a "significant contributor" to prison overcrowding, with record numbers now behind bars.

It blamed a failure to pump enough cash into promised community punishments for a rise in short-jail terms which could lead to increased reoffending.

Ministers' pledges to build more cells were a "risky" strategy that failed to address the long-term issue, the committee said. And the MPs heavily criticised a "deeply unimpressive" Government-commissioned review of sentencing by Lord Carter they said was based on "wholly inadequate" consultation.

Community sentences, instead of replacing short jail terms were being used in place of fines, fuelling the "inexorable rise in sentences".

In a damning verdict, they also deemed it "wholly indefensible" that prisoners were being kept in jail too long because of problems with controversial "indeterminate" sentences.

The report said so-called Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection, or IPPs, introduced four years ago for "dangerous" criminals, should only be used as a "rare exception" in future.

IPPs created a massive bottleneck in the prison system because they were given to inmates serving sentences so short they could not complete courses required to win parole - meaning they had to be kept on after the end of their sentence.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw has already announced they will be amended so they only apply to prisoners who are given a minimum of two years in jail.

The report called for an "urgent review" of the numbers of young people being given short jail terms as well as action to reduce the numbers of "vulnerable" sections of society - including the mentally ill, drug addicts and women, being put behind bars.