‘JUDGES AND MAGISTRATES TOUGHEN UP IN RESPONSE TO PUNITIVE POLITICAL CLIMATE’

An independent report published today by the Prison Reform Trust explodes the myth that magistrates and judges in England and Wales are soft on crime and calls for decisive   political leadership in reducing the record prison population.

The report, ‘The Decision to Imprison: Sentencing and The Prison Population’, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation under its Rethinking Crime and Punishment initiative, says that the rapid rise in prison numbers is not linked to a rise in crime but is caused by tougher sentencing - the courts are sending far more people to jail and for much longer.

It concludes that this toughening up has been in response to a harsher  legislative and legal framework that has come about as a result of the increasingly punitive climate of political and media debate about crime and punishment. The courts will continue to make ever-increasing use of prison unless this climate of opinion changes, and  clear and consistent political leadership is needed to make this happen.

The report, by Professor Mike Hough, Dr Jessica Jacobson and Dr Andrew Millie at South Bank University’s Criminal Policy Research Unit, analyses sentencing trends since 1991. It found that overall crime rates and the number of offenders appearing before the courts have both fallen and therefore neither can explain the 71 per cent increase in the adult prison population. Instead the prison population has grown because:

• The courts are more likely to imprison offenders who ten years ago would have received a community penalty or fine.  For example people convicted of  petty offences such as theft and handling of stolen goods are three times more likely to go to prison now than in 1991. The chances of being imprisoned by a magistrate for driving whilst disqualified has almost tripled.
• Overall the courts are imposing longer prison sentences for many crimes. Burglars and sex offenders receive much longer jail terms than they did in 1991. The number of offenders being sent to jail for four years or more has increased by 62 per cent.
• The report draws on interviews with 133 judges and magistrates from across England and Wales to examine what factors influence sentencing. The key findings are:

1.  A harsher legislative and legal framework has had an inflationary effect on jail terms.
2. The climate of political and media debate about crime and sentencing has become more punitive and this has had an impact on magistrates and judges.
3. Sentencers, particularly magistrates, believe that changing patterns of offending are significant, though there is little statistical evidence to suggest this.
4. Judges and magistrates are generally happy with the range of non-custodial options available but are concerned the Probation Service is under-funded. Community sentences which include the provision for regular court review, such as Drug Testing and Treatment Orders, are particularly favoured.

The report concludes that best way of bringing down the prison population is to issue guidance to the courts to use imprisonment less often, and where custody is used, to pass shorter sentences. It warns that the strategy of relying on judicial guidance will fail unless it is accompanied by  clear political will to reduce the temperature of media and public debate about crime and punishment, and to promote greater understanding of the range of alternatives to prison.

Speaking today, the report’s lead author Professor Mike Hough, director of South Bank University’s Criminal Policy Research Unit, said:

“Ten years ago, people thought that the courts were far too soft on crime. Judges and magistrates have responded by getting progressively tougher. But the public simply haven’t realised this, because they haven’t been told clearly enough. It is perverse for sentencing policy to be driven by misrepresentation and misunderstanding in this way.”

The Director of the Prison Reform Trust, Juliet Lyon, said:

 “This report shows that it will take a decisive and sustained change of political will to halt the relentless increase in our prison population and the shocking levels of re-offending and strain on the public purse which accompany it. If we are serious about preventing the next victim, it is time to bring a sense of proportion and fairness back into sentencing which has become grossly inflated by a misplaced emphasis on toughness rather than effectiveness.”

Responding to the report prior to speaking at its launch, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, said:

“This important report shows that there is an answer to the continually increasing prison population.  The answer is a change in rhetoric from all those with a leading role in the criminal justice system.” 

Responding to the report prior to speaking at its launch, the Chair of the Magistrates Association, Rachel Lipscomb, said:

“The Magistrates' Association encouraged the Prison Reform Trust to commission this research and is pleased that this valuable report has now been published.  We believe that the research demonstrates the need for action on the part of the Government in two areas. Firstly, legislation is required at the lower end of the sentencing framework to provide for a low level community penalty where a fine is no longer appropriate but where the offence is not 'serious enough' for a community sentence, as such.  Secondly, the Government should look again at the Criminal Justice Bill and enable sentencers to consider properly alternatives to imprisonment for defendants who have reached the custody threshold — something which we cannot do under the current sentencing structure introduced by the Criminal Justice Act 1991.”

‘The Decision to Imprison: Sentencing and the Prison Population’ by Professor Mike Hough, Jessica Jacobson and Andrew Millie is published by the Prison Reform Trust and funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation’s ‘Rethinking Crime and Punishment’  project. It will be launched at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Tuesday 1st July   2003. Copies of the report and its summary are available from PRT offices.