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Comment on the Government's green paper on criminal justice reform (7 December 2010)

Commenting on 'Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders', the Government's green paper on criminal justice reform, Jon Collins, Campaign Director for the Criminal Justice Alliance, said:

"Today's green paper is a huge step forward for the criminal justice system. More treatment for people with mental health and drug problems, more effective community penalties and more use of restorative justice can reduce reoffending and cut crime, while fewer people in prison will save money and free up space and resources in the prison estate to better rehabilitate those people who do need to be there.

"Efforts to brand this green paper as soft on crime entirely miss the point. At a time when public money is scarce we can no longer afford to waste resources on sounding tough, and these proposals instead focus on what is effective. Cutting reoffending rates will benefit everybody, making communities safer and reducing the number of future victims of crime.

"This green paper is the crucial first step towards developing a more effective criminal justice system and the Government must now ensure that this ambitious programme of reform is delivered at a time when there is limited money available to fund it."