British Prisons have failed  victims of Crime

We must make prisons work. For far too long, for far too many victims of crime, British prisons have failed.

The evidence can be seen in the high numbers of criminals who re-offend when released. More than three in every five prisoners are convicted of another crime within two years of release, the highest proportion since records began – and the worst record of reoffending in Europe.

Released criminals are responsible for at least a million crimes a year, costing the taxpayer £11 billion. So a prisons policy that cut reoffending would cut crime and save money.

What would that mean?

First, we need to ensure prisoners work, train and get educated when they are in prison – to get the experience and skills they will need to go straight when released.

Liberal Democrats have recently proposed that we TREBLE the number of prisoners working inside our jails. This has the added bonus that the work done could help pay into our proposed Victims’ Compensation Fund – so criminals really do start to pay back to society.

Second, we need to separate some of the hardened criminals from those who have serious mental health problems. We need to build more specialised secure units for those criminals who have a mental health problem so they can be properly dealt with.

What’s the point of locking people up, at great expense, without tackling the underlying causes of their behaviour?
 
Such commonsense solutions have rarely been tried – and then only half-heartedly.

We need tough but smarter solutions if we are going to reduce crime still further.