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See other news storiesJustice ministers reiterate existing sentencing guidelines
24 January 2007
In a statement to judges and magistrates, the Home Secretary, the Attorney General and the Lord Chancellor, emphasised the importance of using existing guidelines to ensure that the most dangerous offenders are sent to prison.
The Home Secretary said in a separate speech yesterday: 'It is necessary to a civilised society that those who are a danger to our society are put away.
'The public have a right to expect protection from violent and dangerous offenders.
'Prisons are an expensive resource that should be used to protect the public and to rehabilitate inmates and stop them reoffending
'However, we should not be squandering taxpayers money to monitor non-dangerous and less serious offenders.
'Non-dangerous offenders should be saving the community money not costing it money.'
By sentencing less serious offenders to tough community sentences instead of short prison sentences, not only would pressure on the prison system be alleviated but communities would also benefit from the work offenders would do as part of their community sentence:
'Offenders should be paying back to the community through enforced work, payback and community service, thus saving the taxpayers cost of prison places and the council tax payer the expense of further clean up.'
As part of the criminal justice system review announced in July 2006, the Home Secretary has also put in place plans for an additional 8,000 prison places to ensure the prison capacity is sufficient for the demands placed upon it. These new places will start to become available this year.
However in the short term the current level of prison population means that Operation Safeguard, where overspill prisoners are temporarily secured in police cells, has been put in place.
The National Offender Management Service is closely monitoring the prison population, which fluctuates on a daily basis, and is examining all options under review to deal with the situation.
