Commenting in response to the extra £174 million given to prison and probation over the next three years and the extension of HDC to 4 and a half months, the director of the Prison Reform Trust, Juliet Lyon, said:

‘Building new prison cells will make little difference to the yawning gap between available places and the spiraling numbers being jailed but the same money spent on developing effective community sentences and drug treatment would have a much greater impact.

Nibbling away at numbers, a few prison places here, extending tagging there, is pointless. The government must be brave enough to take radical action to rebalance the criminal justice system.’