Community or custody? A tough question – BBC News

BBC News reporting on the National Commission of Enquiry ‘Final Report’.

‘The criminal justice think-tank Make Justice Work wanted to introduce some rationality into this debate and a year ago assembled a panel of experts to consider “community or custody”.

The commission included senior figures from across the criminal justice system and was headed by the chief political commentator of the Daily Telegraph, Peter Oborne, an influential figure in shaping conservative thinking.
Prison warden stands against iron bars The clunk of the prison gate may put some off crime, but not all.

Today we see the fruits of their labour, a unanimous report with Oborne invited to write the foreword however he saw fit.

“The first point that became shatteringly clear was that alternatives to prison are not a soft option as so often portrayed,” he says.

Bemoaning the way “the debate is framed in favour of those who urge long prison sentences”, he says his conclusion at the end of his year-long study is that “Ken Clarke’s revolution is the most intelligent and realistic answer to many of the most intractable problems in the criminal justice system…“