Breaking the cycle
Author: Great Britain: Ministry of Justice
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2010-12-07
Total Pages: 102
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis Green Paper sets out plans for fundamental changes to the criminal justice system and addresses the three priorities of punishing offenders, protecting the public and reducing reoffending. It seeks to set out an intelligent sentencing framework, coupled with more effective rehabilitation. Despite a 50% increase in the budget for prisons and managing offenders in the last ten years, almost half of all adult offenders released from custody reoffend within a year as well as 75% of youth custody offenders. These proposed reforms will seek to make prisons places of hard work and industry. There will be a greater use of strenuous, unpaid work as part of a community sentence alongside tagging and curfews. There will also be a greater focus on the enforcement and collection of fines, and a much stronger emphasis on compensation for victims of crime. Six new rehabilitation programmes will be piloted on a payment by results basis. Treatment rather than prison will be the option for the less serious offenders with mental illness and drug dependency. The proposals also seek to introduce more straightforward sentencing alongside greater transparency from the courts. The publication is divided into seven chapters, covering the following areas: punishment and payback; rehabilitating offenders to reduce crime; payment by results; sentencing reform; youth justice and working with communities to reduce crime, along with two annexes.