666 de' vil

Home Secretary John Reid is under fire after he urged the courts to send only the most dangerous and persistent criminals to prison.

Mr Reid, Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer and Attorney General Lord Goldsmith have written to judges and magistrates in a bid to try to relieve some of the pressure on the UK's overcrowded jails.

The move has been branded as "outrageous" by opposition MPs, who claim sentences are being dictated by the prison capacity and not by the crime committed.

But the Home Office defended the move, saying it was a necessary stopgap measure before plans to create a further 8,000 prison places came into being in the spring.

During Prime Minister's Questions, Tory leader David Cameron compared the Government to the ship stranded off the Devon coast.

But Tony Blair said: "He was simply reminding the courts of existing sentencing policy."

Meanwhile, A-wing at HMP Norwich, which was closed at the weekend after being condemned as unfit for human habitation, has been reopened to make 150 more places available for offenders.

The move comes as the prison population of England and Wales hovers around its capacity of about 80,000 places.

The letter is understood to be the first in a series of measures designed to ease prison overcrowding over the coming weeks and months.

Mr Reid said: "It is necessary to a civilised society that those who are a danger to our society are put away.

"The public have a right to expect protection from violent and dangerous offenders. Prisons are an expensive resource that should be used to protect the public and to rehabilitate inmates and stop them re-offending.

"However, we should not be squandering taxpayers' money to monitor non-dangerous and less serious offenders."

Things like this just drive you mad,
he's just giving the yobs a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD

some one needs to rob him,then see how he feels

Alps Pacino

My now disapeared dad is a police man and it ws once said that re abilitation is working because 15% of offenders that got parole rather than jail didnt reoffend

DazC

iTrader: (1)

Simple solution.

Make prisions a punishment. Make them a very uncomfortable place to be and people will think twice about re-offending.

neilm

Just kill off all the phsycos, nonces and lifers..

Make room for the chavvy coonts that steal cars.....


Nothing wrong with public hanging... I'm sure the thought of Public Hangings, shown just before the lottery numbers on a Saturday Night would make a few people think twice before commiting crimes....

Katie

I don't think you could get through them all quick enough for a small slot like that

What about saturdays hanging highlights? Like match of the day but not

neilm

They used to do 3 and 4 at a time in olden days...

Katie

Surely they wouldn't die quick enough to be on between the news and the lottery update though? You couldn't shoot somebody that fast.

I appreciate your idea is fantastic...but you just know it'll drag on so long you miss seeing that you're lottery numbers haven't even won you a tenner again this week. Wouldn't want to miss one of life's little high points there would we! There'd be 30odd thousand complaints at offcom again ''fuck jade goody, I could have been an undeserving millionaire this week!''