The government has been urged to make the biggest reforms to the justice system in decades, in a major new review of how criminals should be sentenced and jailed.
The long-awaited sentencing review by former Tory justice secretary David Gauke – commissioned by Labour’s Shabana Mahmood in her first weeks in office as the prisons crisis reached boiling point – was published on Thursday.
The review recommends vast changes to the way crimes are punished, including scrapping most jail sentences of less than a year in favour of community sentences and curfews, and extending the current use of chemical castration for some sexual offenders using drugs to reduce their libido and compulsive sexual thoughts.
It also calls for “Texas-style” sentences with both a maximum and minimum term, in which prisoners could be released a third of the way into their sentence in reward for good behaviour, with a greater reliance on electronic tagging and curfews.
Warning that “the scale of the crisis we are in cannot be understated”, with overcrowding leading to perilous conditions for prison staff and contributing to high levels of reoffending”, Mr Gauke warned that ministers “must take decisive action” and “cannot build their way out of” the current crisis.
“These recommendations, which span the entirety of the justice system, are focused not only on bringing the prison population under control but ultimately reducing reoffending and ensuring victims are protected,” he said.
The measures “should ensure the government is never again in a position where it is forced to rely on the emergency release of prisoners”, said the former Tory minister, urging Ms Mahmood and Sir Keir Starmer “to act with bravery in their response”.
Who could be spared jail?
The government should ensure custodial sentences of less than 12 months are only used in exceptional circumstances, such as failure to comply with court orders, to provide respite for domestic abuse survivors, or for those who have reoffended.
Deferred sentences would be available for crimes punishable with terms of up to three years, with greater use of suspended sentences for low-risk offenders with specific needs, including pregnant women or drug dependencies.
Courts would be given greater flexibility to use fines and orders such as travel, driving and football bans in a bid to deter future offending.
Offences carrying potential jail terms of less than a year currently include crimes such as theft, public disorder, drug offences and vandalism.
Critics of shorter prison sentences have long argued that they are associated with higher rates of reoffending, with community sentences deemed to often be more effective at addressing the underlying causes of the initial offence than prison.
Which prisoners could be freed early?
Prisoners on standard sentences of fewer than four years could be freed a third of the way into their sentence for good behaviour, or else at the halfway mark, with supervision in the community until two thirds of the way into their sentence.
More serious offenders could be free halfway into their sentences, or later if they fail to comply.
Those deemed dangerous by a judge could be eligible to apply for parole earlier – at halfway instead of two-thirds – if they earn “credits” by engaging in rehabilitation activities. They would only be released if the Parole Board decided it was safe to do so.
According to the review, its five key proposals – if enacted – would cut the prison population by around 9,800.
What other measures are included?
The review also recommends tightening the threshold for recalling offenders to prison. It highlighted that less than a quarter of recalls in the final quarter of 2024 involved a charge of reoffending, and nearly three quarters instead involved non-compliance with licence conditions, which can include a tag running out of battery, or missing probation meetings.
Offenders instead should only be returned to jail in the event of “consistent non-compliance with licence conditions or specific and imminent risk”, according to the review – with the length of recall incarceration lengthened from the current 14 or 28 days to 56, to reflect the more serious nature of such a measure.
The review also suggests extending the use of chemical castration for the most serious sexual offenders at six prisons and in an ongoing pilot in southwest England, which uses drugs to limit offenders’ invasive sexual thoughts and reduce their libido.
It advises that the government should “undertake further research into the international use of chemical suppression” and continue pilots on a small scale before any decision is made to roll such a measure out further across England and Wales.
Warning that a greater use of community sentences will pile further strain on an already crisis-stricken probation service, the review recommends a major funding boost for the service, while calling for probation officers to be given more autonomy to effectively manage their cases.
Why does the government say reforms are necessary?
Describing the situation as “a horrible reality to be in” which “shows the scale of the terrible inheritance that the Conservative Party left behind”, the justice secretary told The Times that she faces “very, very difficult decisions”.
Ms Mahmood added: “But this is where we have a duty, we have to act in the nation’s best interest, we have to make sure that there is a criminal justice system worthy of the name. We have to make sure we don’t run out of prison places.”
With decades of increases in prison sentence lengths largely blamed for fuelling the current overcrowding crisis, in addition to a soaring remand population due to record crown court backlogs, the previous Tory government was first forced to release prisoners early in October 2023 to free up cells, releasing 10,000 inmates up to 70 days early while in power.
Following the general election in July 2024, as the prisons crisis threatened to delay court hearings, Labour said it had no choice but to release thousands more prisoners 40 per cent of the way into their sentence, rather than halfway.
But prisons are once again 99 per cent full, with just a few hundred spaces remaining.
What has the reaction been?
Senior justice figures have long been warning that reforms are needed in order to stop prisons from continually running out of space, with HM chief inspector Charlie Taylor telling The Independent in 2023 that the crisis was a “ticking time bomb” and that Britain needed to decide what the purpose of jail should be.
Speaking ahead of the review’s publication, his predecessor Nick Hardwick welcomed the proposals as “very positive” and “sensible” measures which “will take some pressure out of the system and enable it to focus on people who need much more focused attention”.
But he warned of multiple “big risks” which will require “really careful management and thought”, questioning whether there will be enough available community services – in areas such as housing, substance misuse services and education – “to make the alternatives to prison viable”.
Justice charity Nacro’s head of policy Andrea Coady said that a new approach to rehabilitating offenders was “desperately needed”, but told The Independent: “Rewarding those who engage with the rehabilitation process seems like a no-brainer but we are concerned that as it stands, the prison system is not set up to deliver this.”
Ms Coady added: “There needs to be significant investment and strategic planning to ensure prisons are well staffed, with the facilities to offer meaningful work, and education courses to everyone inside, if the plans for early release on good behaviour are to work in practice.”
