This shameful plan to cut prison sentences must not pass

Telegraph

22-05-2025

As the 9/11 terrorist attack unfolded a Labour aide sent a memo around Government suggesting that it was a 'good day to get out anything we want to bury'. 'Councillors expenses?', she suggested.
The Blairites are back in charge and channelling the same approach to Government communications. Yesterday the Government tried to bury their sentencing reforms under the spectre of high net migration figures, growing borrowing costs and the Chagos surrender deal, hoping the busy news day would avert attention.
No 10 even went to the lengths of deploying a dead cat story that they will mandate the chemical castration of paedophiles. Pigs will fly before Starmer faces down his friends in the human rights lobby and forces these sick individuals to confront their actions.
Under the plans the Justice Secretary announced yesterday there will be a presumption against short prison sentences of 12 month or less. To give a snapshot of the numbers that involves: in 2023 there were over 4,000 thieves, 3,000 thugs done for assault, and 1,000 burglars that were handed sentences that fall below the cut off. Those facing longer sentences – for offences like drug dealing, child abuse and arson – will be able to be eligible for release after serving just a third of their sentence if they behave well in prison.
In fact, it gets worse. Criminals who plead guilty – and most do – already get a one third reduction in their sentence. So, under Shabana Mahmoood's new sentencing framework, a paedophile who pleads guilty to an eighteen-month headline term would spend just one fifth of that term in jail. That's a discount so big it'd make Aldi and Lidl blush. The public are already hacked off that criminals are serving half of their sentence – this change would see the whole system descend into farce.
Instead the Justice Secretary said – with a straight face, may I add – that offenders will be placed in 'prisons outside of prisons' on tags. Words that lead most people in this country to conclude the Lord Chancellor has lost her marbles. Tags aren't iron bars: they can't stop a shop being ransacked again and again. If you just get a tag, why on earth would you think twice about doing it again? This is a recipe for a crime wave and a licence for hardened criminals to terrorise communities with impunity.
Facing down Labour MPs in the House of Commons chamber yesterday, it was as if they thought the criminals were the real victims in need of our support (and taxpayer money) – not punishment.
Starmer insists he has no choice but to give prisoners a get out of jail free card. But he does. The day he elevated James Timpson to the Lords – a man who said two-third of prisoners shouldn't be in jail – and appointed him as a Justice Minister, he revealed his aversion to prison. What Starmer is doing isn't practical – it's ideological.
The Ministry of Justice forecast that they need 9,500 extra prisons spaces by 2028. Well, there are 10,800 foreign national offenders clogging up our prisons. That's one in every eight cells. And there are 17,800 people on remand, in prison, awaiting trial. In three years time that number could rise to as many as 23,600. Meanwhile, when I visited the Central Criminal Court last month, 40 per cent of the courts sat empty.
The practical solution would be to introduce emergency legislation to disapply the Human Rights Act to deport these foreign criminals. Visa sanctions should be imposed on every country that refuses to take back their nationals that have harmed our citizens. Courts should be sitting around the clock to clear the backlog of cases backing up into our prisons.
If Labour were serious they would commit to building more than the meagre 250 rapid deployment cells they are planning to build this year. Or strike a deal with one of the 13 European countries with spare prison capacity, as Denmark is doing with Kosovo. But instead of straining every sinew, they are reaching for the comforting option of freeing criminals.
Ironically, the Justice Secretary claims her reforms are based on the Texan system. It's no such thing. The Texas system has cut crime and reoffending by having an incarceration rate five times higher than ours. Between 1993 and 1996 they built nearly 75,000 prison cells. If they can, why can't we?
I would be the first to admit that the last Government didn't build enough prisons. We were also too quick to decommission the old Victorian prisons when space was invaluable. Labour say we can't build out way out of this problem – I say we have no choice but to.