Ken Clarke faces wrath of Tory Right with plan to cut prison numbers

12 April 2012

Kenneth Clarke faced a backlash from Tory traditionalists today as he set out plans to slash prison costs by jailing fewer offenders.

The Justice Secretary described Britain's 85,000 prison population as "astonishing" and said that more community sentences could help cut reoffending rates.

Mr Clarke stressed that while serious offenders should still be locked up, for many prison was an expensive way of failing to stop them returning to crime.

But his new policy, which contrasts starkly with former Home Secretary Michael Howard's famous "prison works" stance, came under fire from both Labour and the Conservative Right.

Tim Montgomerie, editor of the ConservativeHome.com website, said: "Even if Ken Clarke's prisons policy is right — and I don't think it is — there was a lack of transparency in not putting it in the Tory manifesto."

Former shadow home secretary David Davis told the Standard: "The real issue is how to get prison to work better and whether the alternatives to prison are any better."

Backbencher Philip Davies said: "I think lots of Conservative supporters, whether they be in parliament, members or voters, will feel very disappointed by this announcement."

Mr Clarke's new approach also appeared to be at odds with David Cameron's strong backing during the general election campaign for short sentences for vandalism and anti-social behaviour.

During one of the leaders' TV debates, Mr Cameron cited his mother's experience as a magistrate as he criticised Liberal Democrat policies for more community sentences.

"When someone smashes up the bus stop, when someone repeatedly breaks the law, when someone is found fighting on a Friday or Saturday night, as a magistrate, you've got to have that power for a short prison sentence when you've tried the other remedies," Mr Cameron said.

Today, Mr Clarke denied that he was disagreeing with the Prime Minister.

"I am not at direct odds with my leader. You do need short sentences for the kind of nuisance criminal who keeps being a recidivist," Mr Clarke told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Increased prisoner numbers had "not done much about" problems such as vandalism and "loutish" behaviour though, he said.

He added that opposition to his plans was "quite limited" given the need to cut the national deficit.

He pointed out that Willie Whitelaw, home secretary under Margaret Thatcher, had also backed "intelligent" policies on sentencing.

Shadow justice secretary Jack Straw said: "In the crazy world of coalition government, Kenneth Clarke shows he has learnt nothing about fighting crime in the time since he was in charge of prisons 17 years ago."

Mr Clarke said that keeping a prisoner in jail costs an average £38,000 — more than sending a boy to Eton — but has too often proved "a costly and ineffectual approach that fails to turn criminals into law-abiding citizens".

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in