'It’s safer in here’: Government announces review of sentences as prisons reach capacity

The government has announced it is reviewing the sentencing of criminals, as prisons reach bursting point, ITV News UK Editor Paul Brand reports

The government has announced it is reviewing the sentencing of criminals, as prisons reach bursting point.

The review will be led by former Justice Secretary David Gauke, who told ITV News: "The prison population has doubled over the last 30 years, we have the highest incarceration rate of any Western country.

"Reoffending rates are too high and we should look at whether sentencing policy could be more smartly applied to ensure we can reduce them."

His review will assess whether prison is always the most effective punishment when compared to other sentences, such as community service.

On Tuesday, more than 1,000 prisoners will be released early for the second time this autumn in a bid to free up space in prisons, which have almost reached full capacity.

ITV News was given exclusive access to HMP Humber, near Hull. When we visited on Friday, it housed 1,100 inmates and had just 27 spare places.

Some of their capacity has been taken up by rioters convicted after the far-right unrest in August, who occupy 19 cells in the prison.

We were permitted to speak to prisoners at random, giving us a first-hand account of how many end up inside.

“I did it deliberately because it’s safer in here,” one offender told me, as he stepped off a prison van to start a fresh spell at HMP Humber.

The man, convicted of domestic violence, had previously been released but breached his licence conditions.

“I’ve come back on three recalls now”, he said. “I went back out, did one recall, went back out, did another, went back out, and this is my third one now”.

More than 400 prisoners at HMP Humber are in prison on recall, which means they’ve been sent back to jail for breaching their licence conditions.

Several prisoners we spoke to had either deliberately been recalled or claimed that they had struggled to stick to their licence conditions.

ITV News understands that reducing recalls is one option being considered by the government’s review.

Judges have generally leaned in favour of prison in recent years, but critics claim that short sentences are ineffective and lead to a cycle of reoffending.

More than half of offenders given a sentence of less than 12 months go on to re-offend upon their release from prison.

Gauke told ITV News that short sentences do not seem to be the answer to punishing those who are "hyper prolific", and commit many offences.

He said: "The reoffending rate for those who have been in prisons for a short amount of time is much higher than for those who served a community sentence.

"There is a question about whether we can have more effective community sentences, particularly in the context of new technologies that are coming in to play: the use of electronic tagging, the use of drug and alcohol monitoring.

"Is there more that we can do to make sure those community sentences feel like more of a genuine piece of punishment than perhaps they have been in the past?"

Gauke also addressed the urgency of reducing pressure on prison populations in the UK, which he said were projected to grow by 4,500 offenders per year.

"We cannot build prisons fast enough to respond to that increase in demand," he said.

"Although the government has taken action that has reduced some of the pressures on the prison population, if that trend continues we are going to run into some serious issues as a country over the course of the middle of this decade, and we need to take action sooner rather than later."

On one wing of HMP Humber, we spoke to Mark Duffy, who is due to be released early on Tuesday.

He told us he has been to prison about nine times in his life since he was 13-years-old, often on shorter sentences.

"They're releasing people now to free up spaces," he said. "Half of the people will come back because there's nowhere to go.

"The rioters are taking up the spaces too, the government is trying to do something that's not going to work."

We heard for ourselves how prisoners who serve anything from a few days to a few months have to rebuild their lives from scratch upon release.

While I put it to the offenders that their situation was their own responsibility, many told me of the difficulty of finding housing and work after a spell inside.

Shaun Adams has been in and out of prison since he was 14-years-old.

Now in his late forties, he’s spent more time inside than outside and admits he has become institutionalised.

"I cannot function," he said. "The outside world for me is just alien.

"Even though I've got kids, I can't cope out there. Prison isn't a punishment anymore."

One alternative to prison is community sentences, where offenders carry out compulsory work in their local area.

In some cases, offenders are able to maintain their jobs, housing and family ties, all of which would be disrupted if they were sent to prison.

Once their sentence is served, the argument is that it is easier to rebuild their lives, reducing their likelihood of reoffending.

By contrast, the governor of HMP Humber, Marcella Goligher, told me that rehabilitation is not possible when offenders are sent to prison for short spells.

She said: "We can be dealing with a prisoner who has come to us and might only be in for three weeks.

"It's very difficult to invest in the relationships and motivate them to help them make the changes to their lives."

Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning.

Not everyone agrees with reducing the use of shorter prison sentences.

Some argue it would be better to increase the capacity of prisons, rather than release offenders who have in many cases ruined their victims’ lives.

At HMP Humber, they are building two new wings, but across the country, prisons aren’t being built fast enough to match rising demand.

The government is hoping to complete its sentencing review before prisons reach capacity again next summer.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know