Book Description

This is the first report from the Justice Committee in the 2009-10 session and examines the subject of: "Cutting crime: the case for justice reinvestment" (HCP 94-I, ISBN 9780215543080). The report calls for a change in the way we tackle criminal justice and seek to cut re-offending. The Committee states that the criminal justice system faces a "crisis of sustainability" if resources continue to be absorbed by an ever-expanding programme of prison building rather than on preventing crimes from being committed, with prison building not being an effective long-term answer to coping with the already record-breaking prison population which is predicted to rise further. The average prison place costs £41,000 a year (plus further capital costs and health and education expenditure on top), with the Government's new prisons costing - on current estimates - up to £4.2 billion over the next 35 years. The Committee believes that a more "prudent, rational, effective and humane" use of resources is needed to shift the focus of expenditure away from incarceration and towards rehabilitation and prevention. This would involve investment in local education, health, drug, alcohol and community programmes in targeted areas based on analyses of where offences occur, where offenders live and "what works" in reducing offending. This is known as "justice reinvestment". Volume 2, contains oral and written evidence (ISBN 9780215543110).