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PA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nScrapping short prison terms is among a number of ideas set to be considered by an upcoming government review of sentencing.<\/p>\n Ministers are interested in proposals to toughen up community orders as an alternative to jail, to reduce the number of offenders in prisons.<\/p>\n David Gauke, a former justice secretary and Conservative MP, is the frontrunner to head the work, the BBC has been told by multiple sources.<\/p>\n The review will be announced later this month and is expected make recommendations to ministers next spring.<\/p>\n As justice secretary in 2019, Gauke said<\/a> there was a strong case for scrapping jail terms of less than six months.<\/p>\n The BBC has approached Gauke for comment. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Shabana Mahmood, the current justice secretary, is known to want to toughen community sentences, which could involve strict conditions and punishments but no time behind bars.<\/p>\n Several government sources pointed to advances in technology, such as sobriety tags monitoring alcohol use, that could be used more widely to detain criminals in their homes.<\/p>\n One source argued community orders could be tougher than prison because those convicted could not \u201cmong out for 23 hours a day on drugs\u201d.<\/p>\n Ministers are also exploring international examples of reducing crime in Texas and Louisiana, where prisoners can reduce their sentences by earning credits for good behaviour.<\/p>\n Officials also pointed to New York, where offenders convicted of drug-related crimes can be sent on a treatment programme. If they complete it, they can have their charges dismissed or reduced.<\/p>\n It comes as prisons across the country are struggling to deal with overcrowding after the number of offenders behind bars hit a record high.<\/p>\n The Labour government has been exploring options to relieve the immediate pressure on prisons, and has already released some offenders early<\/a> to free up space.<\/p>\n But further emergency measures to stop prisons breaching capacity will be needed next year, sources have told the BBC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ministers had hoped the existing early release scheme would buy them 12 months.<\/p>\n But the riots this year mean prisons are expected to be full again next summer, before any changes to sentencing can be made.<\/p>\n In the long term, ministers want to consider sentencing changes that could reduce crime.<\/p>\n Ending or moving away from short sentences could have a particular effect on the number of women in jail, after the Prison Reform Trust found last year that over half (58%) of jail terms given to women in 2022 were for less than six months.<\/p>\n Ministry of Justice figures show<\/a> more than half of adults (57%) released from prison sentences of less than 12 months went on to reoffend.<\/p>\n One Ministry of Justice source said the government would be encouraging the reviewer \u201cto follow the evidence in terms of how sentencing can cut crime\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPrisons are creating better criminals, not better citizens,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n A solicitor who was seen as being on the centrist wing of the Conservative Party, Gauke could be viewed as a contentious choice to lead the review.<\/p>\n In 2019, he made a series of speeches to call for a shift away from short prison sentences and towards punishment in the community.<\/p>\n But Gauke\u2019s successor, Robert Buckland, said he did not believe abolishing short sentences was the right way forward.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lord Woolf, a former chief justice of England and Wales, told the BBC he thought Gauke would be a \u201cvery good person\u201d to lead the sentencing review.<\/p>\n He said the government should consider launching a public inquiry into the penal system.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there is ignorance over what prisons can achieve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He wrote a report about the Strangeways prison riot in 1990 and has consistenly highlighted the problems of prison overcrowding since then.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
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