Sir Keir Starmer, the new Prime Minister, wants to reduce the number of people going to prison by stopping reoffending.
In his first press conference, he highlighted that many people end up back in jail soon after release, showing the current system isn’t working well.
He aims to tackle issues like knife crime among young people.
Starmer criticized the old government’s deportation scheme to Rwanda, calling it a failure. He also pointed out that there are too many prisoners and not enough prisons.
His new prisons minister, James Timpson, believes that only a third of current prisoners should be in jail.
The Labour government, which won the recent election by a large margin, plans to review sentencing and improve the prison system.
They have inherited a crisis with overcrowded prisons and plan to continue the early release scheme to ease the pressure. Starmer’s goal is to prevent crime before it happens and to stop the cycle of reoffending.
According to the BBC, Starmer is focused on solving the problem by implementing new strategies and using evidence-based approaches, unlike the previous government’s policies that were more about punishment.
He acknowledges the challenges but is committed to finding long-term solutions.
Credit : BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c16jpkzz9g3o