Member

The prison capacity crisis is the last Government’s fault above all others. They failed to provide sufficient prison places and legislated consistently for more and longer time served in prison. This was led not by evidence that it would lead to a reduction in crime, but by a populist demand from the press and their supporters to be so-called “tougher on crime”. When the capacity crisis hit them, they introduced cack-handed, emergency early-release provisions to attempt a short-term, stopgap solution that was far less well thought out and researched than the measures proposed in the Bill. Those measures owe much to the work of David Gauke, a former Conservative Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State, who brought to the Independent Sentencing Review an independence of mind and evidence-led approach that does him and his team credit, and for which we are very grateful.