Today’s National Audit Office report ‘Managing offenders on short custodial sentences’ highlights the massive cost and ineffectiveness of short-term prison sentences. The report findings mirror those of the recent report by the Commons Justice Select Committee and those of the Centre for Social Justice. As the evidence mounts against short-term prison sentences the next prospective government should not shy away from addressing the issue and looking at more productive ways of dealing with low-level offenders.

Short-term prison sentences cost the state £300 million annually, yet as the NAO report highlights, these short prison terms do little if anything to tackle re-offending. The report claims that the National Offender Management Service is struggling to manage short-term prisoners, with activities for them being deemed ‘inadequate.’ If these offenders were redirected to robust community based alternatives to custody more money could be spent on rehabilitating them and providing vocational and training opportunities rather than wasting millions on keeping them behind bars.

The harsh truth is that even the most effective rehabilitation given to those on short sentences really cannot work. It is inconceivable to expect these offenders – who are often repeat offenders with chaotic lifestyles – to turn their lives around in just a matter of weeks or a few months in prison only to be released back into the community. They would be released back to the same chaotic community from whence they came where there is very little or absolutely no post release service. Without properly funded programmes in the community to deal with the wide range of issues which compound continued offending behaviour, we can only expect this problem to continue to get worse.

Research commissioned by Make Justice Work projected the cost to society of locking people up on short-term sentences. The research found for example that in 2007 if all low-level offenders with a drug problem had been put into a drug residential treatment programme instead of a short-term prison sentence then over £1 billion could have been saved over the lifetime of these offenders. Rather than spending more money on rehabilitation in prisons as the NAO report suggests, more lower level offenders should be given appropriate robust alternatives to custody, where more money and time can be spent on rehabilitation while also removing the stigma and negative influence of short-term prison terms.

Policy makers have to grasp the economic reality – short-term prison sentences cost the state millions, if not billions, and are utterly ineffective. If any other public service was so profligate while being so inefficient there would be a national outcry. It is now time for politicians to stand up to corrosive media headlines which only serve to derail their ability to develop sensible policies which genuinely can do justice to victims and the public.

Photo: Ian Britain 2002