Prison governors should have a higher public profile and professionals in the criminal justice system should be encouraged to interact with the public as much as possible, according to a report published today, which proposes a new, more local approach to tackling crime.
The report, Primary Justice, is based on a six-month inquiry commissioned by the Local Government Information Unit and chaired by Labour MP Clive Betts. It concludes that up to 35% of the national prison budget should be controlled at a local level and says professionals should be employed like GPs in the NHS, to provide primary care in the criminal justice system.
Only such a radical shift of powers and funding to a local level will fix what the report terms Britain's "broken" criminal justice system, argues the report. It says a local safety and justice budget should be created to fund, among other things, local prisons and neighbourhood policing, with local services commissioned either from existing providers or by setting up new local services.
Public confidence depends on better information
The report says there should be greater understanding that public confidence depends on better information for the public about crime, and this might involve greater interaction between professionals and the public, as well as "creating space for prison governors to be recognised public figures in the community".
The UK spends more on law and order as a percentage of its GDP than any other OECD country and yet is a "high crime country" by comparison, says the report.
At 153 prisoners per 100,000 general population, the UK has the highest per capita rate of imprisonment in western Europe, apart from Luxembourg. But most prisoners re-offend after their release from custody. Two-thirds of all adults reoffend within two years and three-quarters of young offenders re-offend within two years.
From Bubb's Blog
From Whitehall Watch
