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Prisoners serving more of their sentences ‘will increase pressure on prisons’

PLANS to keep serious offenders behind bars for longer may not help to cut crime and would only add to pressures on already overstretched prisons, campaigners from Prison Reform Trust have warned.

MPs have begun to debate legislation that would scrap automatic release halfway through prison sentences.

The plans propose that serious offenders will serve at least two thirds of their sentences before being allowed out on licence.

If passed, the laws will come into force on April 1 and will apply to standard determinate sentences of seven years or more – handed down on or after that date – where the maximum penalty is life.

Ministers said the changes are being brought in to make sure punishments reflect the severity of the crimes and are part of an “extensive overhaul to the criminal justice system” that would allow for a “greater period of rehabilitation” for prisoners.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said that the government is spending £2.75 billion on “transforming and modernising” prisons and creating 10,000 extra prison places.

But Prison Reform Trust director Peter Dawson said that longer sentences have only helped to produce a prison system that “fails to deliver either safety or rehabilitation.

“Good soundbites don’t always make good policy – a coherent plan for reform is long overdue,” he said.

In a report commissioned by the trust, researchers from the University of Cambridge and Royal Holloway, University of London, suggest that England and Wales are already tougher on punishing serious crime than other countries.

According to the findings, fewer than 100 people a year were handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 15 years between 2000 and 2003. By 2008 this had risen to 249 adults and as of September 2019, 1,872 life sentence prisoners had tariffs of over 20 years.

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