My Lords, this debate has raised two important issues: the justification for short custodial sentences and how we curtail their imposition in practice.
The debate saw an interesting exchange between the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, and my noble friend Lord Beith, and I take the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, that the law requires courts to avoid unnecessary custodial sentences where alternative sentences are appropriate. However, my noble friend Lord Beith is right that far too many short sentences are still imposed. The noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, gave us some of the figures. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope of Craighead, made the point that the amendment does add something to the existing law. One thing it adds is that it is focused entirely on short sentences, whereas the Sentencing Code provisions are not.
This House has heard endlessly of the damage that short custodial sentences do. There simply is no evidence to justify their regular imposition. If the Minister has any such evidence, perhaps he can tell us what it is. We regularly stress the extent to which the rate of reoffending following short sentences greatly exceeds reoffending rates for community sentences, a point made by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Bristol, using the words of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Gloucester; it was a point also made by my noble friend Lord German a moment ago.
8 pm
The immediate effect of imprisonment is dramatic: families are split, jobs are lost and housing is imperilled. The noble Lord, Lord Dubs, made these points. None of these adverse events is reversible for short sentences, any more than for long ones. The disruption of lives for the short periods that short sentences inevitably involve far outweighs any possible good that can come of those sentences. Such sentences necessarily offer no proper chance to arrange treatment to address issues—often long-term—of mental health, drug abuse and alcoholism. They offer little or no prospect of courses, training or rehabilitation, and they do not enable contact with potential employers, offer any opportunity for engagement with the voluntary sector with a view to arranging support in the community on release, or help with family or housing issues.
The programme that short sentences impose on the Prison Service and probation service can be bluntly summarised. Step one: cut all ties that the offender has with family and any employer, risking housing stability and probably posing difficult and intractable financial problems on the offender and the family in the process. Step two: lock up the offender, not at a predictable prison or one selected in any way to meet the particular needs or problems of the offender in question but at one that has the space for a short-term prisoner suddenly added to the prison population. Step three: allow no time to organise meaningful help or support. Step four: release the offenders with less support than they had at the time of sentencing.
Amendment 212 in the names of the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby, and my noble friend Lord German attempts to force sentencing courts at least to spell out a justification for short sentences. This would be salutary. The principles in proposed new subsection (2B) seem most important, and I will focus on paragraph (b), which states that
“custody should not be imposed where a community order could provide sufficient restriction on an offender’s liberty (by way of punishment) while addressing the rehabilitation of the offender to prevent future crime”.
But other principles are equally important. I particularly mention proposed new paragraphs (a) and (c), which encourage sentencers to get away from the habit of courts to commit to ratcheting up sentences from one community sentence to another and then to custody. Amendment 213 would have a similar effect to Amendment 212, with the important presumption against short sentences. It is stronger than the present Sentencing Code, in clearly focusing on short sentences.
The second issue raised by this group is that of primary carers and pregnant women. We discussed this at some length on the amendment moved by right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Gloucester on 1 November, as mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Bradley. We considered the report of the charity Women in Prison, mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, in the debate on the second group today. The sudden effect of separation is important. It is felt not just by parents who are primary carers but by their children.
We mentioned the loss of the homes of 95% of children whose mothers are imprisoned and therefore forced to lose their homes. For the children of
primary carers, parental prison leads to low educational achievement, truancy, mental health issues, alcohol dependence, drug abuse and later criminality. But similar outcomes are also to be expected from short sentences passed on the primary carers of those children. The appalling effect on pregnant women and their children was also dealt with in an earlier group today.
The Government need not only to restate their opposition to short sentences but to reinforce it. For the support in principle for these amendments expressed by the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, to become a reality, the law needs more teeth than it has at present. These amendments provide those teeth.