PRT comment: Independent Sentencing Review

The Prison Reform Trust welcomes the Independent Sentencing Review and its clear commitment to evidence–based reform.

Commenting, Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

The review rightly recognises that short prison sentences are less effective at reducing reoffending than robust community-based alternatives. Proposals to limit the use of short sentences to exceptional circumstances, and greater use of suspended and deferred sentencing, offer a practical route to reducing the number of people serving brief, ineffective custodial terms—sentences that do little to improve public safety or support rehabilitation.

The review’s focus on expanding the use of effective community alternatives is both positive and necessary. The review is right to recognise the need for this to be backed by sufficient funding and resources for probation to supervise more people in the community. We welcome proposals to provide sustainable and long-term funding for women’s centres, expand the use of intensive supervision courts and increase investment in community sentence treatment requirements and liaison and diversion services.

The review is also right to highlight the need to restructure standard determinate sentences and regularise release points. This represents a sensible, phased approach to rehabilitation—supporting people to begin their return to the community under supervision, while still serving their sentence. The introduction of an incentives model will need to be monitored carefully to ensure it does not lead to unfair or disproportionate outcomes.

The rapid rise in recall in the past few decades has been a major driver of the growth in the prison population, often trapping people in a revolving door of imprisonment and release. We welcome the review’s proposals to limit its use and to prevent people from being returned to prison for technical breaches of their licence. If implemented they would represent a more proportionate and constructive approach, helping to break the cycle and support long-term rehabilitation.

This review comes at a time of acute pressure on prison capacity—driven by years of sentence inflation and the failure of politicians to plan for the consequences of their penal populism. We welcome proposals to introduce an external advisory body on sentencing and a requirement for ministers to make an annual report to parliament on prison capacity. These measures would encourage evidence-based policy and provide an important check on kneejerk responses to crime by politicians. However, the review does not address the significant impact of longer sentences for serious offences, which have been a key driver of the rising prison population. There will be an opportunity to return to this pressing issue with the report of the Law Commission on homicide law in the coming years.