Crimes of Violence: Prison Sentences
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of shorter prison sentences for prisoners convicted of violent offences on reoffending rates.
Answered by Sir Nicholas Dakin
The Independent Sentencing Review recommends a reduction in short prison sentences.
There is a compelling case for doing so: in the most recent data, nearly 60% of those receiving a 12-month sentence reoffended within a year. It is important, however, to note that the review recommends a reduction in short sentences, not abolition. It is right that judges retain the discretion to hand them down in exceptional circumstances, which David Gauke suggested could be in situations of domestic abuse.
We have also been clear that anyone who breaches protective orders linked to violence against women and girls, such as stalking and domestic abuse protection orders, will be excluded from this presumption.
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