Committee warns on 'risky' prisons policy

The government's sentencing policies have been a "significant contributor" to prison overcrowding, according to MPs.

The Commons justice committee said on Tuesday that rushed legislation and insufficient funding meant that too many people were being sent to jail.

Plans to build more cells were "risky" and ministers should come up with a more coherent long-term approach, the report said.

It also said that Lord Carter's government-commissioned review of sentencing was based on "wholly inadequate" consultation.

The Carter review had been "a missed opportunity for a fundamental consideration of problems with sentencing and provision of custodial and non-custodial facilities in England and Wales", the committee said.

The MPs also warned against using short custodial sentences, which they said were "very unlikely to contribute to an offender's rehabilitation".

"In fact, short custodial sentences may increase re-offending," they warned.

They said that community sentences, instead of replacing short jail terms were being used in place of fines, fuelling the "inexorable rise in sentences".

The report added that indeterminate sentences should only be used as a "rare exception", warning that they risked clogging up the prison system.

Justice minister David Hanson said Lord Carter's report "was a key contribution to this vital public debate and the government is grateful to him for the contribution he has made".

"Prison is the right place for the most serious, violent and persistent offenders and we will always ensure there are enough prison places for such offenders," he said.

"This is the right approach. It is the approach which will best protect the public.

"However, we also recognise that prison is not the right answer for every offender: for some the most effective way of turning them away from crime is through a tough community sentence where they both pay back their debt to society as a punishment but also have the opportunity to mend their ways."

Justice secretary Jack Straw announced last year that £1.2bn would be spent on an additional 10,500 prison places, with 7,500 of them in three new "Titan" prisons.

And shadow justice secretary Nick Herbert said the committee had identified "a complete incoherence in government policy which has lurched from releasing 30,000 prisoners a year early to belatedly building the biggest prisons in Europe".

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne added: "This devastating report makes it perfectly clear that the current prison overcrowding crisis is a product of the government's short-sighted criminal justice policies.

"Ministers have pursued a course that sounds tough but is not based on evidence. The report adds to the chorus of disapproval on indeterminate sentences and on 'short sharp shock' tactics. But, more importantly, it destroys Lord Carter's preposterous proposals for Titan prisons."