Was There any Good News?

The Chancellor has spoken and we know the Ministry of Justice is going to lose 14,000 jobs over the next four years. But I feel there was some good news.

• Although NOMS stays, 760 jobs are to go from their Regional Offices.
• An increase in the use of restorative justice.
• Investment in mental health liaison and diversion services at police stations and courts, to divert mentally ill offenders and drug addicts into treatment.
• A speeding up of the risk assessment and parole of 1,300 inmates serving indefinite sentences for the public's protection who were recommended to serve a tariff of two years but have been in prison for longer. (This will be interesting given problems with OASys)
• A planned reduction of the prison population by 3,000 over the next four years (in reality this will mean 10,000 less short term prisoners)
• Recalling released prisoners only for serious breaches of their licences rather than technical lapses.(I must admit I thought this happened anyway)
• Reducing the use of remand for defendants charged with crimes that would not normally attract a prison sentence. (Not sure how they intend to do this)
• £1.2 Billion for prison improvements and essential extra places
• Abandonment of the prison expansion programme to 96,000 places
• A 'rehabilitation revolution' probably by introducing 'Payment by Results'

Clearly the last item is contentious, but it must be worth trying, particularly in relation to the many short-term prisoners serving 12 months or less for whom sadly the Probation Service is not currently funded to help. In terms of how Ken Clarke intends to get the prison population down, he hopes to remove foreign national prisoners more quickly and will increase the discount offered for an early guilty plea to 50%. As to how he intends to reduce the numbers of short sentences, we'll have to wait for the Green Paper due out before Christmas.