The Government is not fit for purpose over the criminal justice system

5.47.00pm GMT Fri 26th Jan 2007

John Reid famously said that the Home Office was not fit for purpose. I am now utterly convinced that it is the Government that is not fit for purpose over the criminal justice system. The prisons are now full, there is talk about having prison boats and letters have been sent to Judges 'reminding' them that they should look at all alternatives to imprisonment for all but the more serious of offences - one Judge interpreted this as saying a paedophile should not be imprisoned. Today the Head of the Youth Justice Board (YJB) has also resigned saying the juvenile justice system was being "swamped" with minor offenders.

Of course this is just the latest blunder, we have seen foreign prisoners being released and not deported, British subjects who committed offences overseas not being recorded properly here and other prisoners just walking out. That is all in the last few months!

It is almost laughable that no one is taking responsibility for this. Labour came to power in 1997 (so for a start they can stop blaming the Tories for everything now!) promising to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. Well they have been tougher on sentencing but have not addressed anything else, and by being touching on sentencing they have increased the amount of people in prison - no one seemed to realise that the direct result of this would be that prison spaces would run out.

Labour have failed to tackle the causes of crime, resorting to gimmicks and sound-bite politics. They have also brought in 3,000 new offences and had countless pieces of criminal justice legislation - no wonder we are in the mess we are in!

Labour should have decided when they came to power what crimes should result in people being put in prison and what other forms of punishment should be given to those not placed in prison. Some of it is quite obvious people who commit murder, rape, any form of bodily harm to others should have to, in my opinion, have to serve some form of custodial sentence. Other crimes are also obvious non-payment of Council Tax is not something I would ever lock someone up for - there are various other ways someone can pay back society community service is but one.

Labour should have also looked at both the current prison population and those that are committing crimes, are there people who would be better off not in prison but in some other form of institution or indeed receiving help outside of an institution. It is no co-incidence that those in prison are often those with either mental health issues or learning difficulties.

Labour should have finally looked at what was trying to be achieved by putting people in prison. They should be some move towards giving prisoners a better education and skilling them so they could get a job on release and break the cycle of crime, the re-offending rate in this country is astronomical.

I am not proud that we imprison so many people in the UK, again one of the highest rates in the world. Whilst we shouldn't be starting from the current situation we are, and I don't expect a whole root and branch reform along what I outlined I do think a decent Home Secretary and a decent Government could look at trying to implement some of what I have outlined above.