Community sentences need to be trusted more, minister says

The prisons minister has said community sentences need “to be trusted more by the courts” as an alternative to jail.

Speaking at Labour’s conference, Lord Timpson said the government was moving quickly to review how courts sentence offenders.

He suggested previous prisons ministers had not always followed the evidence on “the best way to stop reoffending”.

The Labour peer said his appointment by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was a “signal that we need to change the system”.

The former CEO of the Timpson Group, the key-cutting and shoe-repair company, is well known for hiring ex-offenders and was chairman of the Prison Reform Trust.

In comments before he became a minister, he said only a third of people in prison should be there.

“We’re addicted to sentencing, we’re addicted to punishment,” he told Channel 4 News in February.

The UK is dealing with an overcrowding crisis in prisons, with the population in England and Wales at a record high.

A scheme to release some offenders early to free up space in prisons started this month.

The Labour government said this was necessary to prevent the prison system from running out of cells.

At a fringe event at Labour’s conference in Liverpool, Lord Timpson acknowledged that not “everybody will have my view on what prison is for”.

He added: “But we need to make sure that everything we do cuts crime, and if it cuts crime and reduces reoffending, then I hope that the public will follow this.”

Ministry of Justice figures show more than half of adults (57%) released from prison sentences of less than 12 months went on to reoffend.

A member of the audience at the Fabian Society event urged Lord Timpson to consider community sentences as a “direct alternative” to imprisoning offenders.

A community sentence combines some form of punishment with activities such as unpaid work, but no jail time.

“We don’t want suspended sentences,” the audience member said. “The law says a community order is a direct alternative to custody. We need massive publicity, we need government branding and I beg you to say it.”

Lord Timpson replied: “I completely agree with you about the positive impact of community sentencing but I think it needs to be trusted more by the courts.”

He said the government’s sentencing review would be done “at speed, so let’s see what happens with that”.

“I’m a big believer in something that I’m not sure whether all my predecessors have done which is look at the evidence,” the minister said.

“If you follow the evidence on what is the best way to stop reoffending, you will often lead to the power of community sentencing.”