The Conservative Party published its manifesto and manifesto costings for the 2019 General Election this afternoon. This is a summary of their proposed criminal justice policies:
Policing:
Recruit 20,000 new police officers
Back the increased use of stop and search as long as it is fair and proportionate
Put the Police Covenant into law
Equip officers with additional powers and tools including tasers and body cameras
Introduce a new court order to make it easier for officers to stop and search those convicted of knife crime
Ensure anyone charged with knife possession will appear before magistrates within days
Strengthen the accountability of elected Police and Crime Commissioners and expand their role
Use additional police resources to tackle rural crime
Prisons:
Create a prisoner education service focused on work-based training and skills
Improve employment opportunities for ex-offenders, including a job coach in each prison
Improve prison security to protect staff, stop drug smuggling and reduce violence
Add 10,000 more prison places, with £2.75 billion already committed to refurbishing and creating modern prisons
Maintain the ban on prisoners voting from prison
Parole:
Conduct a root-and-branch review of the parole system
Give victims the right to attend hearings
Establish a Royal Commission on the criminal justice process
Sentencing:
Introduce tougher sentencing for serious offenders
End automatic halfway release from prison for serious crimes
For people convicted of murder of a child, there will be life imprisonment without parole
Pass the Police Protection Bill
Consult on doubling the maximum sentence for assaulting workers in emergency services such as police officers, firefighters and paramedics
Double the maximum prison term to 14 years for individuals convicted of the most serious examples of tax fraud
Introduce tougher sentences for animal cruelty
Vulnerable children:
Review the care system to make sure that all care placements and settings are providing children and young adults with the support they need
Improve the Troubled Families programme and champion Family Hubs to serve vulnerable families with intensive, integrated support
Young people and children:
Invest £500 million in youth services for young people
If they endanger others, we will put them in new alternative provision schools
Trial Secure Schools for young people who offend
Introduce new laws requiring schools, police, councils and health authorities to work together through Violence Reduction Units to prevent serious crime
Drugs:
Tackle drug-related crime and take a new approach to treatment
Foreign nationals:
Prevent more foreign national offenders entering our country
Cut the number of foreign nationals in prison and increase penalties to stop them returning
Prevent serious criminals from entering the country
Probation/community:
Expand electronic tagging for offenders serving time outside prison, including the use of sobriety tags for those whose offending is fuelled by alcohol
Toughen community sentences, for example by tightening curfews and making people with convictions do more hours of community payback to clean up parks and streets
Modern crime prevention:
Embrace new technologies and crack down on online crimes
Create a new national cyber crime force
Empower the police to safely use new technologies like biometrics and artificial intelligence, along with the use of DNA, within a strict legal framework
Create a National Crime Laboratory
Strengthen the National Crime Agency so to tackle fraud, county lines gangs, child sexual abuse, illicit finance, modern slavery and people trafficking
Victims of crime:
Pass and implement a Victims’ Law that guarantees victims’ rights and the level of support they can expect
Violence against women and girls:
Support all victims of domestic abuse and pass the Domestic Abuse Bill
Increase support for refuges and community support for victims of rape and sexual abuse
Pilot integrated domestic abuse courts that address criminal and family matters in parallel
Homelessness:
End rough sleeping by the end of the next Parliament
Expand pilots and programmes such as the Rough Sleeping Initiative and Housing First
Work to bring together local services to meet the health and housing needs of people sleeping on the streets
Renew the Affordable Homes Programme
Fully enforce the Homelessness Reduction Act