SENTENCING FOR BURGLARY

Motion Text

That this House recognises that prison numbers have increased to 72,000; agrees with the Director of the Prison Service, Mr Martin Narey, that prison overcrowding is a scourge, making it far more difficult to rehabilitate offenders; believes that prison should be a sentence of last resort, reserved for the most serious offenders; agrees with the honourable Member for Dorset West that it is imperative for sentencing purposes to distinguish between first-time burglars who are non-violent, and those burglars who are persistent or violent; and calls upon Her Majesty's Government to do what it can to ensure that when first time, non-violent burglars are breaking in to finance their addiction to drugs, the offender is not sent to prison but placed instead on a drug treatment programme in the community.