It was as shadow home secretary in the early 1990s that Tony Blair came up with “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” – a characteristically New Labour formulation intended to finesse a perceived vulnerability on law and order issues. Yet in subsequent decades, governments of all stripes have focused overwhelmingly on the first clause, and treated the second as an optional extra.
The disastrous result is a criminal justice system on the brink of collapse, as the former Conservative justice secretary, David Gauke, has outlined in his interim report on the sentencing system in England and Wales. Cumulative Westminster pressure for longer prison terms has led to a doubling of the incarcerated population in 30 years. More draconian sentencing and greater recall of released offenders who break parole have left the prison estate bursting at the seams and necessitated ad hoc early release schemes. Labour’s plans to deliver 14,000 extra prison places by 2031 – at a cost of £10bn – will not be enough to keep pace with rising numbers.
