LAST year 600,000 crimes were committed by people who had broken the law before. 212 people who had done time for murder were convicted of new offences. 3292 people who had been convicted of rape were convicted of fresh offences.
Jackie said, “clearly there is something not right with a regime which half of all offenders leave prison and commit fresh crimes which see them locked up again within a year. Of course our prison regime is about punishment, but it is about rehabilitation too. It is bad for public safety that criminals are simply released into the community simply to reoffend.
That is why I welcome Chris Grayling’s determination to reform the probation regime. We will only break the cycle of reoffending if we properly supervise offenders when they have been released. Rehabilitation isn’t working. We will not build a safer society until we fix it.”
People can only be rehabilitated if they are punished properly in the first place. Letting murderers and rapists out of prison shows just how useless our system is.