Ms Braverman claims the new plan would deter repeat offenders - but the stats suggest otherwise (Image: PA)
Suella Braverman has accused the Prime Minister of threatening public safety with its new sentencing plans.
She was slamming plans by Rishi Sunak to let offenders facing jail time of less than 12 months serve their punishment in the community. The former home secretary insisted the claims were “misguided”, and instead called for automatic jail time for serial offenders.
His policy would fail to deal with those regular offenders who were responsible for a disproportionate number of crimes, Ms Braverman claimed in an article for the Telegraph. However, there remain issues with overcrowding prisons and questions over how effective they are at reforming offenders.
READ MORE: Suella Braverman slams Rishi Sunak's Rwanda Bill as it 'will not stop the boats'
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She wrote: “The Sentencing Bill aims to ease pressure on the prison estate, but in my opinion will put public safety at risk, place an undue burden on the police and probation service, and potentially lead to an increase in crime.”
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She put forward two amendments to the Bill. These include toughing up the penalties for prolific offenders, after research by the think tank Policy Exchange which found that more than half of all criminals with at least 45 previous convictions are spared jail.
These so-called “hyper-prolific offenders” were found guilty of almost 10,000 offences last year in total. 47 percent of these were immediately sent to jail, and some received no jail time at all.
Ms Braverman suggests that anyone who has hit 45 crimes will face a mandatoy two-year prison sentence every time they’re convicted of another serious offence.
Announcing the policy, Mr Chalk said short prison sentences will still be applied to repeat offender (Image: PA)
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Her second amendment, labelled “five strikes and out”, would create immediate jail sentences for a criminal who had complete five successive offences.
She insisted that “short sentences are an important deterrent against criminality. Without the stint of a few months in prison, many of these criminals will no doubt go on to reoffend. The deterrence of custody will be removed entirely, the incentive to desist from criminality will evaporate and victims will be failed.”
But part of the justification for Mr Sunak’s policy was that reoffending is statistically more likely following a short prison sentence, as stated by the Lord Chancellor, Alex Chalk, as he announced the policy in the House of Commons.
He noted that reoffending rates are far higher for offenders in prison for under 12 months, and higher again for those in for under six months. While the overall reoffending rate is 25 percent, the rate for people who spend fewer than 12 months in prison is over 50 percent.
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There has also been a significant decline in the quality of support given to prison leavers, making them more likely to reoffend, research by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found last month. According to the report, the prison population was at around 99 percent (84,400) of safe capacity in March 2023.
Government predictions suggest prisons could go well beyond safe capacity in just a few years’ time if nothing changes.
Ms Braverman said most crimes were committed by a “relatively small” proportion of offenders, but too many escaped jail, citing one criminal who had 343 previous convictions but only received a community order and fine for further charges of theft. “We need to toughen up the law to deal with these career criminals,” she said.
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Mr Chalk said when announcing the policy that short prison sentences will still be applicable to repeat offenders.
Announced by the Justice Secretary in October, the Bill creates a legal presumption that offenders facing jail terms of under 12 months will have their sentences suspended. They will instead be “punished” in the community by doing unpaid work such as cleaning up litter and graffiti.
They will be fitted with electronic, GPS, alcohol or drug tags and placed under curfews of up to 20 hours a day at weekends. Any repeat offender breaching their suspended sentence would be returned to court where they would face having to serve the full term in jail.
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