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New Statesman
22-05-2025
- Politics
- New Statesman
The prisons crisis demands a new era of reform
Photo by In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images We have a prison population crisis that must be addressed urgently. Our prisons are close to being full (with 88,087 inmates) and the demand for places is growing faster than it is possible to build new cells. Unless action is taken to reduce demand in the next few months, we will either have to undertake a programme of emergency early releases or be unable to place new offenders in custody. That was the bleak context when I was approached last September by the government to chair an independent review on sentencing policy, assisted by a panel of experts from across the criminal justice system. At the time, the expectation was that prison capacity would be reached in spring 2026. Since then, matters have become more acute as the prison population has risen even faster than anticipated. Last week, the Ministry of Justice revealed that the adult male estate will be full by November. Considering the need for a precautionary buffer, by early 2028 demand for prison places needs to be reduced by 9,500 compared to current projections. There is no uncontentious way to do this, although some argue that there are two relatively easy ways of doing this. The first is to deport foreign national offenders (FNOs), of whom there are approximately 10,800 in our prisons. More could be deported, it is argued. We agree and have set out proposals on how to do so. But claims that this can solve the problem entirely are unfortunately very wide of the mark. For a start, approximately a third of FNOs are on remand awaiting trial. For some nationalities, we have no functioning relationship with an FNO's home state, so they will not accept them back. Even where we can deport someone, unless we have a prisoner exchange agreement, there is no guarantee that an offender would be sent to prison in their home country. For serious offenders, it would be wrong for them to escape time in prison altogether. The second suggestion is that if only we accelerated the courts process, we could reduce the remand population, which currently stands at over 17,000. Again, there is a very good case for reducing the courts backlog. Current waiting times are too long for defendants and complainants and doing so would reduce the remand population. But although some on remand will be acquitted or have already served their time, a large majority ultimately will be convicted and have more time to serve. Furthermore, tens of thousands of defendants are currently on bail. Some of those defendants will eventually be convicted and sentenced to prison. The point here is not that we should ignore the courts backlog (Brian Leveson will be reporting on this shortly), but that it is not the solution to the prison capacity crisis in the short term. Instead, we have focused on what can make a significant difference to the numbers. The reoffending rates for those receiving short custodial sentences are very high. A better approach to continuing to use short sentences as frequently as we do would be to strengthen community sentences (both by widening the use of sanctions available to the courts and enhancing the capacity of the probation service) and only using short sentences in exceptional circumstances. One area of the sentencing regime that works well is suspended sentences – compliance with conditions is relatively high and reoffending is relatively low. We recommend allowing them to be used more widely. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe For those who do go to prison, we need a change of approach. We recommend a progression model that means that well-behaving prisoners can be released earlier than is currently the case, but that there is also a second stage in the sentence where offenders are monitored much more closely in the community. Technology creates new opportunities to do that. A significant cause of the surging prison population has been the increased use of recall, when an offender out on licence is returned to prison as a consequence of breaching the terms of that licence. In 1993, there were fewer than a hundred recalled prisoners and even in my time as justice secretary in 2018-19 it was just 6,000. There are now over 13,000. We recommend a fundamental reform of this system to ensure that recall is only used when necessary. All of these measures should be sufficient to prevent our prisons from overflowing. But a successful long-term approach means they need to be accompanied by measures to ensure that we can adequately deal with offenders in the community. The probation service, third sector organisations that assist in rehabilitation, drug and mental health treatment, and approved premises for ex-prisoners reintegrating into society are all vital to bring down reoffending and can be neglected if resources are diverted into supporting an ever larger prison population. In the longer term, the best way to reduce the prison population is to cut reoffending, and these areas can play an important part. There is an opportunity to move in a more positive direction in which prison continues to play an important part in our system but that we make better use of the alternatives to custody, bringing down reoffending and reducing the number of victims. Necessity has created an opportunity to deliver important and meaningful reform. I hope it is an opportunity that the government will take. David Gauke is the former justice secretary and chaired the government's independent sentencing review. Related
The Guardian
05-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Here's a radical way to save England's collapsing justice system: get rid of juries
Are the middle ages about to end? We all know Magna Cartaset the principle that justice delayed is justice denied. These days, outmoded British judicial systems amount to precisely such a denial of justice, playthings of a legal profession supremely confident of its perfection. No aspect of these systems is more superfluous than juries. There is no conclusive evidence they are more 'just' than systems based on judges in the rest of Europe – or in non-jury courts in Britain. As of September 2024, a record 73,000 trials in England and Wales are, like A&E patients, waiting their turn in a bureaucratic corridor. In March, a trial of a man alleged to have been threatening members of the public with a machete was postponed for three and a half years to 2028. According to a 2023 report by the charity Rape Crisis, on average adult survivors of rape in England and Wales face a wait of 787 days from reporting to case completion in court – with many victims and survivors waiting much longer. They note that the picture has significantly worsened since their report, with the latest available criminal court statistics from the Ministry of Justice revealing that the number of sexual offences waiting to go to the crown court is now 11,981 – a record high and an increase by 41% in two years. A consequence is that the number of rape victims in England and Wales withdrawing prosecutions before trial has more than doubled in the past five years. Sexual crime has therefore become like shoplifting, in effect de-criminalised. Meanwhile, 20% of people in prison in England and Wales are as yet untried and on remand, a third of them for over six months. This is totally unjust. Nobody cares. Britons love their prisons. To the present government's credit, it has asked a retired senior judge, Sir Brian Leveson, to find answers to the delay, and he is due to do so. One expected reform is that Britain should join the rest of Europe and end, or drastically curtail, the jury system. Already only 1% of criminal cases in England and Wales culminate in trial by jury. We could conclude that we need not bother. But the cost and delay of jury trials are enormous, and assembling 12 jurors (15 in Scotland) and countless officials day after day often results in trials being postponed. I have served as a juror three times and it was the most maddening waste of time and money in public service. None of it was really about justice, more about participating in an archaic legal ritual. The United States is equally devoted to juries – thanks to its British colonial past. There the result has been twofold. One has been accusations of racial bias and savage punishments, the other is a soaring number of settlements negotiated by prosecutors out of court as defendants aim to avoid the uncertainty of juries. The latter now embraces an astonishing 98% of US criminal cases. Such justice is secret, which raises different issues of personal freedom. The 'right to a jury' is a hangover from a medieval entitlement to judgment by one's 'peers' over the whim of an unelected manorial lord or other authority. Today, a criminal trial tends to depend overwhelmingly on scientific analysis or, in fraud cases, on technicalities of finance. Leaving this to groups of amateur strangers is absurd, their reasons for ever secret. Anyway, if they make a mistake, the judge can overrule them. Last year's intriguing Channel 4 docudrama The Jury: Murder Trial had two juries emotionally but plausibly debating the same real-life case and reaching different conclusions. It should have led to the death of juries on the spot. Courtroom drama is undeniably exciting, but inevitably distorting. I can see that to a barrister, it is their professional showcase, a theatre. The Old Bailey is its West End. Like all good drama it has hovering over it the climax of retribution, here in the form of prison. In other civilised countries, where experts administer justice, the purpose of denying the guilty their freedom is their rehabilitation. In Britain it is merely punishment, which is why reoffending is so rife. The ever increasing criminalisation of public activity merely adds to the problem. Politicians can hardly let a month pass without creating another criminal offence. Hate and offence crimes are current favourites, along with causing 'nuisance' and committing strenuous protest. Almost anything done in the driving seat of a car is potentially criminal. Water bosses are apparently now to be imprisoned – I can hear the cheer. As for online crime, the law has barely begun. Defenders of the jury system are almost exclusively barristers, which unfortunately means a disproportionate number of MPs. They rank with doctors and academics as fierce defenders of their traditional modes of work – more powerful than any trade union. The profession embraces fine people, but their purpose was defunct centuries ago. Juries are supported by a few middle-class philanthropists who enjoy jury service as a version of 'doing good among the poor'. We do not let them dissect bodies in an operating theatre or decide how to design a building. Perhaps a minority of cases may depend on public taste, but that must be truly tiny. Leveson was a radical – or tried to be – in reforming the press. If he has the guts to do the same to his own profession he will have a tough job with his fellow lawyers. But at least this time he has two potent allies: a system that is clearly collapsing and a chancellor desperate to curb public spending. All strength to his arm. Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
The Independent
05-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Justice Secretary says courts backlog will rise despite record level of sittings
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said that, despite announcing a record level of sitting days for crown court judges to tackle delays, the 'sad reality' is the backlog of cases will 'still go up'. The Lord Chancellor said on Wednesday that judges will sit collectively for 110,000 days in the next financial year – 4,000 more than allocated for the previous period – to help victims see justice done faster. The move comes after the Victims Commissioner published a report on Tuesday warning that the record levels of crown court delays are deepening the trauma of victims and making many feel justice is 'out of reach'. The rising backlog in England and Wales has almost doubled in five years to 73,105 at the end of September last year. Ms Mahmood told the Commons that some victims will not have their cases heard until 2028, as she said the extra sitting days will be funded by a total budget of £2.5 billion allocated for courts and tribunals in the next financial year. It comes as a report from the Public Accounts Committee published on Wednesday raised concerns that ministers have 'simply accepted' the record-high crown court backlog will continue to grow and they will wait for the results of the Leveson Review before planning changes to tackle it. The major review, led by Sir Brian Leveson, is expected to report on reforms to the courts system in the spring. Announcing the extra sitting days, Ms Mahmood described it as a 'critical first step' but said there is more that 'we must' do. Asked how long it will take to clear the courts backlog, she told Times Radio: 'We will be making progress, but the sad reality is that, even sitting to this unprecedented amount, the backlog will still go up. 'Because the demand of cases coming into the system is very, very large, and that's why I announced some weeks ago that Brian Leveson will be carrying out a crown courts review for us to look at once-in-a-generation reform of the sorts of cases that go into our crown courts, so that we can actually bear down on that backlog in the longer term.' Changes on which cases go to jury trials as crown courts buckle under the 'sheer number of cases' coming in will be among the measures being considered in the Leveson Review, Ms Mahmood told LBC. 'He will also be considering whether we should do more with our magistrates' courts and the sorts of cases that they can hear, or whether there is a case for a court that sits between the magistrates and the crown,' she said. But the Justice Secretary has faced calls to increase the sitting days to what the Lady Chief Justice has said should be a maximum of 113,000 days. Law Society of England and Wales president Richard Atkinson said the number is 'still not at the maximum the Lady Chief Justice has said is possible to achieve', while chairwoman of the Criminal Bar Association, Mary Prior KC, called for the number to be uncapped for at least the next five years. Speaking in the Commons, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: 'What we have learnt again today is that the Justice Secretary is still turning down available sitting days, and, astonishingly, she has conceded that the court backlog will keep on rising. 'This is simply not acceptable. 'We need to be maximising court capacity, taking full advantage of all available days, and probing the judiciary for options to create more capacity.' But Ms Mahmood told the House she is 'confident' that 110,000 days represents system capacity, when considering availability of lawyers, prosecutors and legal aid as well as judges, and 'that is what is being delivered'. The extra sitting days will also apply to immigration and asylum tribunal cases, taking them to near maximum capacity, to help speed up asylum claims, the Ministry of Justice said. The Government confirmed funding for repairs and maintenance across the courts and tribunal estate is to rise from £120 million last year to £148.5 million this year. Repairs will include remedial works for crumbling reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) at Harrow Crown Court, which has been closed since August 2023, and fixing leaking roofs and out-of-order lifts. Funding will also be given to new courts being built, such as a 30-hearing room tribunal centre at Newgate Street in London, and a county and family court in Reading. But Mr Atkinson added: 'The funding increase for court maintenance is only a small fraction of the £1.3 billion repairs backlog for courts and tribunals reported by the National Audit Office.' The announcement came as the Victims Commissioner for England and Wales, Baroness Newlove, called for the Government to provide emergency cash for victim support services during this 'time of crisis', and branded real-term cuts to victim support as 'ill-advised' and 'short-sighted'. Ms Mahmood said 'obviously not' when asked by Times Radio if she is comfortable with cutting funding for frontline victim support services by 4% in 2025, but added: 'I've inherited a shocking situation where cases have been waiting for years to be heard and, as you say, are regularly cancelled.' She also told the BBC there will be 'more difficult choices to come' when asked if the Ministry of Justice will have to slash spending amid reports of billions of extra cuts earmarked by the Treasury. 'Every part of Government has to play its part in making sure that the nation's books are balanced and that we are living within our means,' she told BBC Breakfast. 'That means… there have already been difficult choices, and all Government departments have had to play their part in that. There will be more difficult choices to come.'
The Independent
05-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Justice Secretary says backlog will go up despite record court sitting days
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said that despite announcing a record level of sitting days for crown court judges to tackle delays, the 'sad reality' is the backlog of cases will 'still go up'. The Lord Chancellor said on Wednesday that judges will sit collectively for 110,000 days in the next financial year, 4,000 more than allocated for the previous period, to help victims see justice done faster. The move comes as the Victims Commissioner published a report on Tuesday warning that the record levels of crown court delays are deepening the trauma of victims and making many feel justice is 'out of reach'. The rising backlog in England and Wales has almost doubled in five years to 73,105 at the end of September last year. Meanwhile, a report from the Public Accounts Committee published on Wednesday raised concerns ministers had 'simply accepted' the record-high crown court backlog will continue to grow and they will wait for the results of the Leveson Review before planning changes to tackle it. The major review led by Sir Brian Leveson is expected to report on reforms to the court system in the spring. Announcing the extra sitting days Ms Mahmood described it as a 'critical first step' but there is more that 'we must' do. Asked about how long it will take to clear the courts backlog, she told Times Radio: 'We will be making progress. 'But the sad reality is that even sitting to this unprecedented amount, the backlog will still go up. 'Because the demand of cases coming into the system is very, very large, and that's why I announced some weeks ago that Brian Leveson will be carrying out a crown courts review for us to look at once-in-a-generation reform of the sorts of cases that go into our crown courts, so that we can actually bear down on that backlog in the longer term.' Changes on which cases go to jury trials as crown courts buckle under the 'sheer number of cases' coming in will be among the measures being considered in the Leveson Review, she told LBC. 'He will also be considering whether we should do more with our magistrates' courts and the sorts of cases that they can hear, or whether there is a case for a court that sits between the magistrates and the crown,' she said. The extra sitting days will also apply to immigration and asylum tribunal cases, bringing them to near maximum capacity, to help speed up asylum claims, the Ministry of Justice said. The Government confirmed funding for repairs and maintenance across the courts and tribunal estate is to rise from £120 million last year to £148.5 million this year. Repairs will include remedial works for crumbling reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) at Harrow Crown Court, which has been closed since August 2023, and fixing leaking roofs and out-of-order lifts. Funding will also be given to new courts being built, such as a 30-hearing room tribunal centre at Newgate Street in London, and a county and family court in Reading. The announcement comes as the Victims Commissioner for England and Wales, Baroness Newlove, called for the Government to provide emergency cash for victim support services during this 'time of crisis', and branded real-term cuts to victim support as 'ill-advised' and 'short-sighted'. Ms Mahmood said she was 'obviously not comfortable' when asked by Times Radio if she was comfortable with cutting funding for frontline victim support services by 4% in 2025, adding: 'I've inherited a shocking situation where cases have been waiting for years to be heard and, as you say, are regularly cancelled.' She also told the BBC there would be 'more difficult choices to come' when asked if the Ministry of Justice would have to slash spending amid reports of billions of extra cuts earmarked by the Treasury. 'Every part of government has to play its part in making sure that the nation's books are balanced and that we are living within our means,' the Justice Secretary told BBC Breakfast. 'That means … there have already been difficult choices, and all Government departments have had to play their part in that. There will be more difficult choices to come.' Reacting to the extra sitting days, Law Society of England and Wales president Richard Atkinson said they were welcome steps. He added: 'But sitting days are still not at the maximum the Lady Chief Justice has said is possible to achieve. 'While the funding increase for court maintenance is only a small fraction of the £1.3 billion repairs backlog for courts and tribunals reported by the National Audit Office.' The chairwoman of the Criminal Bar Association, Mary Prior KC, also urged the Government to make a difference now by allowing crown courts to sit at the maximum capacity available of 113,000 days, adding: 'Each and every day that a courtroom is left closed is a day when justice is delayed.'
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Justice Secretary says backlog will go up despite record court sitting days
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said that despite announcing a record level of sitting days for crown court judges to tackle delays, the 'sad reality' is the backlog of cases will 'still go up'. The Lord Chancellor said on Wednesday that judges will sit collectively for 110,000 days in the next financial year, 4,000 more than allocated for the previous period, to help victims see justice done faster. The move comes as the Victims Commissioner published a report on Tuesday warning that the record levels of crown court delays are deepening the trauma of victims and making many feel justice is 'out of reach'. The rising backlog in England and Wales has almost doubled in five years to 73,105 at the end of September last year. Meanwhile, a report from the Public Accounts Committee published on Wednesday raised concerns ministers had 'simply accepted' the record-high crown court backlog will continue to grow and they will wait for the results of the Leveson Review before planning changes to tackle it. The major review led by Sir Brian Leveson is expected to report on reforms to the court system in the spring. Announcing the extra sitting days Ms Mahmood described it as a 'critical first step' but there is more that 'we must' do. Asked about how long it will take to clear the courts backlog, she told Times Radio: 'We will be making progress. 'But the sad reality is that even sitting to this unprecedented amount, the backlog will still go up. 'Because the demand of cases coming into the system is very, very large, and that's why I announced some weeks ago that Brian Leveson will be carrying out a crown courts review for us to look at once-in-a-generation reform of the sorts of cases that go into our crown courts, so that we can actually bear down on that backlog in the longer term.' Changes on which cases go to jury trials as crown courts buckle under the 'sheer number of cases' coming in will be among the measures being considered in the Leveson Review, she told LBC. 'He will also be considering whether we should do more with our magistrates' courts and the sorts of cases that they can hear, or whether there is a case for a court that sits between the magistrates and the crown,' she said. The extra sitting days will also apply to immigration and asylum tribunal cases, bringing them to near maximum capacity, to help speed up asylum claims, the Ministry of Justice said. The Government confirmed funding for repairs and maintenance across the courts and tribunal estate is to rise from £120 million last year to £148.5 million this year. Repairs will include remedial works for crumbling reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) at Harrow Crown Court, which has been closed since August 2023, and fixing leaking roofs and out-of-order lifts. Funding will also be given to new courts being built, such as a 30-hearing room tribunal centre at Newgate Street in London, and a county and family court in Reading. The announcement comes as the Victims Commissioner for England and Wales, Baroness Newlove, called for the Government to provide emergency cash for victim support services during this 'time of crisis', and branded real-term cuts to victim support as 'ill-advised' and 'short-sighted'. Ms Mahmood said she was 'obviously not comfortable' when asked by Times Radio if she was comfortable with cutting funding for frontline victim support services by 4% in 2025, adding: 'I've inherited a shocking situation where cases have been waiting for years to be heard and, as you say, are regularly cancelled.' She also told the BBC there would be 'more difficult choices to come' when asked if the Ministry of Justice would have to slash spending amid reports of billions of extra cuts earmarked by the Treasury. 'Every part of government has to play its part in making sure that the nation's books are balanced and that we are living within our means,' the Justice Secretary told BBC Breakfast. 'That means … there have already been difficult choices, and all Government departments have had to play their part in that. There will be more difficult choices to come.' Reacting to the extra sitting days, Law Society of England and Wales president Richard Atkinson said they were welcome steps. He added: 'But sitting days are still not at the maximum the Lady Chief Justice has said is possible to achieve. 'While the funding increase for court maintenance is only a small fraction of the £1.3 billion repairs backlog for courts and tribunals reported by the National Audit Office.'
