PRT comment: Our reaction to the King’s Speech criminal justice measures

“For criminal justice, the King’s Speech was a game of two halves. On the one hand, proposals to extend the use of whole life tariffs and make serious sexual offenders serve the whole of their sentence in custody without supervision on release are headline grabbing measures more to do with winning votes at the next election than sensible policymaking. Legislating to make defendants attend sentencing hearings sounds good on paper but is much harder to achieve in practice without unintended consequences.

“This parliament also inherits a victims bill from the previous session, saddled with controversial changes to the parole system which undermine judicial independence and the vital role of the Parole Board in assessing risk. We are troubled to see no commitment to legislate on IPPs in the speech despite the justice secretary’s stated intention to do so, and hope this serious omission can be swiftly rectified.

“Sending prisoners in the UK to serve their sentences abroad is a startling admission of the hole the government has dug itself on prison capacity, largely as a consequence of ill thought through punitive justice policies.

“But behind the populist facade there are signs of a welcome change in approach. A presumption to suspend short sentences of less than 12 months should mean fewer individuals spend wasteful short spells behind bars. To be successful, investment in probation and effective community interventions will be vital.

“Proposals to extend eligibility for home detention curfew to those serving sentences of more than four years are eminently sensible and a policy PRT has long advocated. It will mean more prisoners gain the rehabilitative benefits of release under curfew and also relieve immediate population pressures.”