The government is considering abolishing short prison terms

Scrapping short prison terms is one of several ideas set to be considered by the government’s upcoming review of sentencing.

The Minister is interested in proposals to harden up community orders as an alternative to prison, to reduce the number of offenders in prison.

David Gauke, the former justice secretary and Conservative MP, is the main leader for the job, the BBC has been told by multiple sources.

The review will be published this month and will make recommendations to ministers next spring.

As Secretary of Justice in 2019, said Gauke there is a strong case for scrapping the jail term for less than six months.

The BBC has approached Gauke for comment.

Shabana Mahmood, the current justice secretary, is known to want tougher community sentencing, which could lead to tougher conditions and penalties, but no time behind bars.

Some government sources point to technological advances, such as sobriety tags monitoring alcohol use, which could be used more widely to detain criminals at home.

One source said community orders can be tougher than prison because convicted offenders cannot “take drugs for 23 hours a day”.

Ministers also explored international examples of crime reductions in Texas and Louisiana, where inmates can reduce their sentences by earning credits for good behavior.

Officials also pointed to New York, where offenders convicted of drug crimes can be sent to treatment programs. Once this is done, the cost can be waived or reduced.

It comes as prisons across the country struggle to cope with overcrowding after the number of offenders behind bars hit a record high.

The Labor Government has been exploring options to relieve immediate pressure on prisons, and has released some early violations to free up space.

But further emergency measures to stop the prison’s breaching capacity will be needed next year, sources told the BBC.

The Minister hopes that the existing early release scheme will buy 12 months.

But this year’s unrest means prisons are expected to be full again next summer, before sentencing changes can be implemented.

In the long term, ministers want to consider sentencing changes that could reduce crime.

Ending or moving away from short sentences could have a particular impact on the number of women in prison, after the Prison Reform Trust found last year that more than half (58%) of prison terms given to women in 2022 will be less than six months.

Ministry of Justice figures show more than half of adults (57%) released from prison sentences of less than 12 months then reoffend.

One Ministry of Justice source said the government would encourage the reviewer “to follow the evidence on how sentencing can reduce crime”.

“Prison makes better criminals, not better citizens,” the source said.

A lawyer seen as a center wing of the Conservative Party, Gauke could be seen as a controversial choice to lead the review.

In 2019, he made several speeches to call for a shift away from short prison sentences and towards punishment in the community.

But Gauke’s successor, Robert Buckland, said he did not believe scrapping short sentences was the right way to go.

Lord Woolf, a former chief justice of England and Wales, told the BBC that Gauke would be a “very good person” to lead the sentencing review.

He said the government should consider launching a public inquiry into the penal system.

“I think we have no idea what prison can do,” he said.

He wrote a report on the Strangeways prison riot in 1990 and has continued to highlight the problem of prison overcrowding ever since.

The retired lawyer is one of five former chief justices inducted paper who blamed “sentence inflation” for lack of space in prisons.

“Society wants longer and longer sentences,” Lord Woolf said. “But they don’t know that they can defeat themselves and that this is a very expensive policy.”

Tory leadership contender Kemi Badenoch criticized Labor for “taking short-term decisions and putting the public at risk”, adding she wanted to tackle the “root cause” of prison overcrowding.

Robert Jenrick, another candidate still in the leadership contest, said Labor was showing a “soft on crime approach”, and that repeat offenders needed “tougher sentences” to protect the public.

Other previous justice secretaries – including Ken Clarke – have talked about sentencing changes, only to be distracted by political opposition or the election calendar.

Attempts by the previous Conservative government to bring in “the presumption that custodial sentences of 12 months or less are suspended” were scrapped after a general election was called earlier this year.

Speaking at a Labor conference last month, Lord Timpson, the prisons minister, said community sentences should be “trusted more by the courts” as an alternative to prison.

He suggested previous prison ministers had not always followed evidence on “the best way to stop re-offending”.

The government has not yet made a decision on potential changes to its sentencing policy and will not do so until it considers the review’s recommendations.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “The Lord Chancellor has confirmed plans to launch a review of sentencing which will focus on protecting the public and reducing re-offending.

“We will soon announce the terms of reference for this independent review and confirm its seat.”