The Big Conversation-Justice

The Budget of the Glorious Coalition shall be announced today, and rumour has it that Osborne (henceforth known as the Boy Wonder) has scheduled up to 1 million fewer public service jobs over the next five years. This will not result in 1 million jobs losses (retiring public service workers not being replaced etc) but even taking ‘natural loss’ into account this is still hundreds of thousands more able workers swelling the ranks of the unemployed. Not only is this a further burden on an already stretched welfare state, it is almost inhuman to force hardworking men and women out of work when there is no need to do so: that is correct Boy Wonder, the deficit can be slashed, and society improved without punishing public service workers. The fact the Chancellery does not use alternative means is either evidence of Danny Alexander and the Boy Wonder’s collective stupidity, or their piggish ideological hang-ups. This leads me on quite nicely to the next in my series of posts on where I would allow the axe to fall if I were Chancellor.

Phil Wheatley, the ex-director general of the National Offender Management Service, has come out in support of axing prison sentences that are shorter than 6 months. His comments have the endorsement of the Prison Governors’ Association, the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo), and the Howard League for Penal Reform. Sentences of six months or less cost the Justice Department £350 million a year, and research (by Napo I believe) has shown that 74% of these short-term convicts will reoffend. Now there is a place for such short-term sentences, but in the vast majority of cases they should be replaced by community service and fines. This would cut reoffending to 34%, save £300 million a year (not including the indirect savings of reduced crime rate), and solve the over-crowding in our prisons all in one stroke. Another great saving by the Marquis-now if only someone would listen to me...