The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act received Royal Assent on 8 May 2008 though many measures will not come into force until later.

The Act introduces a wide range of measures on various aspects of criminal justice and immigration.

The government says once fully implemented the Act will have a net reduction of up to 4,300 in the requirement for prison places. Although the Prison Reform Trust has serious concerns and misgivings with aspects of the Act and the government’s prison policy in general, the overall net reduction in the prison population this Act hopes to provide is welcome. 

The Prison Reform Trust’s concerns include:
• the absence of measures to fundamentally address the increasing prison population
• the failure of the Act to implement the findings of a government review to reform the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (1974)
• the new Commissioner for Offender Management and Prisons being accountable to ministers, not Parliament
• the fundamentally flawed nature of indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPPs) despite the amendments in the Act
• the practical impact of the proposed Youth Rehabilitation Orders and Violent Offender Orders.

You can read the Act and related documents here

You can get more information about the Prison Reform Trust’s concerns with the original bill here