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Criminal justice system needs transformation, new report argues (14 December 2009)

In a new report published on Monday 14 December, experts on penal policy - including politicians, campaigners and academics - put forward a series of proposals that would radically reform the criminal justice system.

The report, 'Transforming Justice: New approaches to the criminal justice system', is published by the Criminal Justice Alliance. It examines the ongoing crisis in the prison system and calls for a thorough debate on the future of the criminal justice system ahead of next year's general election. The Government's reforms since 1997 have failed, and a fresh approach is now required. With the prison system severely overcrowded, high reoffending rates and severe budget cuts to be implemented, contributors argue that the criminal justice system needs throrough and comprehensive reform.

Among the contributors to the report are:
- David Howarth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice for the Liberal Democrats, who proposes an independent agency that reports on the effectiveness of various types of sentence - an equivalent of the National Institute for Clinical and Health Excellence (NICE) - to police the criminal justice system. This body would be charged with assessing objectively the likely effectiveness of criminal justice policies in a way similar to how NICE judges the effectiveness of medical treatments. Attacking the "the failed policies, and the failed politics, of the recent past" and accusing the Government of wasting billions of pounds on building new prisons, Howarth calls for "a more rational, and inexpensive, approach" to criminal justice policy.
- Douglas Carswell MP, Conservative MP for Harwich and Clacton, who proposes elected local 'sheriffs' to oversee all aspects of criminal justice policy, to ensure that criminal justice is responsive to the needs of local people. Going beyond Conservative party proposals for locally-elected police commissioners, Carswell argues that sheriffs should also have control over local prosecution services, sentencing guidelines and the management of prisons and probation. Police authorities would be abolished, putting elected sheriffs in charge of local policing, and the sheriff would also have the power to order a prosecution to be dropped.
- Rob Allen, Director of the International Centre for Prison Studies, who calls for the implementation of justice reinvestment to devolve responsibility for spending on criminal justice to local areas and use money saved by less use of prison to improve crime prevention work in local communities. He advocates a target to reduce the prison population to 50,000, increased diversion from prosecution, less use of short prison sentences and more effective community supervision, as part of a more localised and cost-focused approach.
- Nicola Lacey, Professor of Criminal Law and Legal Theory at the London School of Economics, who proposes a Royal Commission to identify a future direction for the criminal justice system. This would put distance between criminal justice policy and party political competition, and place expertise, informed debate and consensus at the centre of policy making. She also proposes an ongoing role for an equivalent of the Monetary Policy Committee for the criminal justice system, to distance criminal justice policy from party political competition.

Commenting on the report, Jon Collins, Campaign Director for the Criminal Justice Alliance, who edited 'Transforming Justice', said:

"The criminal justice system is in crisis. Prison numbers continue to rise, prisons are dangerously overcrowded, reoffending rates remain extremely high and public confidence is low. Against this challenging backdrop, budget cuts are now having to be made.

"The criminal justice system needs transformation, not just tinkering around the edges, and this collection of essays is intended to stimulate new thinking on criminal justice policy. Radical reform is long overdue, but the political debate on law and order is going nowhere.

"With a general election due in 2010, this report is intended to stimulate fresh thinking among politicians and policy-makers on how to fix our broken criminal justice system."

Commenting on his proposals, David Howarth MP said:

"For too long evidence of what works has been at the periphery of criminal justice policy, when it should be at the heart of every spending decision. This has resulted in billions wasted on new prisons which could have been better spent on measures that do more to reduce reoffending. An independent agency that reports on the effectiveness of various types of sentence - an equivalent of the National Institute for Clinical and Health Excellence for the criminal justice system - would ensure that funding in the criminal justice system would be directed by the evidence of what works. This could help to build a political consensus around a better criminal justice system."

Commenting on his proposals, Douglas Carswell MP said:

"The criminal justice system should be answerable to the local communities it is supposed to serve. In place of the quangocrats and officials who currently oversee the criminal justice system, a simple, effective and transparent system of local accountability should be introduced: directly elected individual Sheriffs. Locally elected Sheriffs would help to restore public confidence in the criminal justice system by bringing justice and policing under local democratic control."

Commenting on his proposals, Rob Allen said:

"Criminal justice in England and Wales is unnecessarily harsh, largely ineffective and increasingly unaffordable. Justice reinvestment offers a new direction in which resources are used to build community capacity to reduce crime constructively rather than waste them on further expanding our record prison population."

The proposals are contained in a report, 'Transforming Justice: New approaches to the criminal justice system' published today by the Criminal Justice Alliance. In response to the current crisis in the criminal justice system, this collection of essays examines possible routes to reform.

The other contributors to the report are: Amelia Walker, Head of Centre for Service Transformation at the Local Government Information Unit, who sets out proposals for localised 'primary justice'; Chris Igoe, Information and Policy Officer at the Restorative Justice Consortium, who examines the evidence supporting a greater use of restorative justice; Professor Mike Hough, Director of the Institute for Criminal Policy Research, and Dr Jessica Jacobson, who discuss the benefits of a Sentencing Council for England and Wales; and Richard Garside, Director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, who discusses the need to tackle inequality.

To download 'Transforming Justice', click here.