I believe that the Labour party should promote policies in support of an effective criminal justice policy in an alternative Queen’s speech. These policies should focus on making effective criminal justice for all. The heart of this platform consists of two key ideas. The first idea is that criminal justice must be effective. This is a pragmatic position that claims that we should aim at policies that are effective at crime reduction and maintain public confidence. The second idea is that criminal justice must be for all. This is the view that criminal justice is about meeting the needs of victims, offenders, and affected communities – it is not about any one of these in isolation.
There are several ways in which Labour should promote effective criminal justice for all:
The first recommendation is that effective criminal justice may be best supported through greater use of restorative justice. Much evidence confirms that prisons are often poor at enabling offender rehabilitation. Recidivism rates remain unacceptably high and some criminologists claim prison might even be considered ‘criminogenic’. Restorative justice offers an alternative to imprisonment. The normal setting is a conference and not a courtroom. The offender must acknowledge his or her guilt upfront. Other participants include victims, community representatives, and support officers. Their purpose is to come to a better understanding about crime, its effects on victims and the community, and an agreed contract with the offender that must be honoured or more severe consequences will become likely. These contracts regularly require offenders to undergo drug and alcohol treatment, anger management therapy, community service, and some compensation to victims.
The government is committed to a greater use of restorative justice and it is easy to see why. The results are highly encouraging when compared with traditional imprisonment. For example, we find that offenders are much less likely to reoffend and victims report perhaps surprisingly high satisfaction with restorative conferences. Furthermore, restorative justice comes at a small fraction of imprisonment costs. So restorative justice may deliver lower recidivism, higher confidence, and at lower costs. Restorative justice is a policy that aims at effective criminal justice for all.
There is much reason to believe that a greater use of restorative justice would lead to reduced criminal justice costs. One problem for the government is that it has cut its costs first before rolling out its policies. This is driven by the desire for criminal justice on the cheap rather than criminal justice by results. All parties should accept the promotion of restorative justice. But all should reject the idea that criminal justice costs should be determined by arbitrary spending cuts imposed by the Treasury. An effective criminal justice system may pay for itself over time and perhaps even in the short term.
A second problem for the government is how restorative justice might be promoted more widely. While it has high confidence among relevant stakeholders in outcomes, more could be done to better win over a sceptical public. One concern is that restorative justice is insufficiently punitive. I would recommend that the Labour party commit itself to an important and specific review of restorative justice policies in the form of a Criminal Justice Commission. The Commission would consider the wide array of different restorative justice policies in light of the evidence available. They would be asked to offer recommendations on how the effectiveness of crime reduction may be achieved while maintaining public confidence. Such a remit commits policy making to follow the best available evidence, but also in how effectiveness may be achieved with confidence. These need not be considered in terms of a balance, but rather in terms of a partnership. Possible recommendations might include the idea that restorative justice is not an alternative to traditional punishment, but one key part of it whereby offenders are more regularly expected to seek amends with victims and communities where appropriate. Other recommendations might include more punitive restoration whereby offenders may be subjected to greater community payback and failure to honour contracts might lead to more likely custodial sentences. Another recommendation might include the greater use of prison as a cooling off period whereby offenders receive brief, but intensive, rehabilitative treatment. These are different ways in which restorative justice might be used more effectively and more widely.
There are also several bills that Labour should promote. One example is a ‘domestic violence bill’. There is still no one criminal offence of ‘domestic abuse’ or ‘domestic violence’. These cases are often prosecuted through other criminal offences, such as battery or even breach of peace. Many criminologists correctly highlight that victims often want their abusive partners to receive help to end the abuse rather than support imprisonment. A domestic violence bill would offer a greater visibility to this pressing problem that affects so many today and it might also help systematise effective mechanisms for better reducing domestic violence wherever it is found.
Finally, criminal justice is often something that many might think only involves other people and not them. We may consider that crime and punishment are things that happen elsewhere and we lack any substantial connection. One idea worth contemplating is a new ‘good citizenship bill’. This would reward the good citizenship for UK citizens who have not been convicted of any criminal offence over a specified period of time, such as perhaps the last two or three years. This reward might take the form of a small tax return or perhaps a small discount on services. The idea is not that people will be best dissuaded from crime through the pursuit of such small rewards although this may be true in some cases. Instead, the idea is that everyone should view themselves as having a stake in society. Costs incurred might be recovered through the community service or compensation required of convicted offenders. If more of us understood criminal justice as more than newspaper headlines charting the miseries of strangers, but instead as a policy area where we had some stake perhaps we might see crime reduction with public confidence.
Labour should commit itself to effective criminal justice for all. This might involve support for a Criminal Justice Commission that could recommend how restorative justice might be better employed in more cases while commanding public confidence in what might be called ‘punitive restoration’. Labour should also recommend a new domestic violence bill and perhaps a good citizenship bill. These recommendations attempt to speak to the best evidence about effective crime reduction in partnership with public confidence. They are inclusive of the needs of victims, offenders, and the larger community. We should be in this together. The government has failed to make this case. It is now Labour’s turn.
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Dr Thom Brooks lectures in political and legal philosophy at Newcastle University. His website is thombrooks.info and he tweets @thom_brooks
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