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British Government to Cut Prisons/Prisoners

By Jonathan Simor

The British are debating whether Chancellor George Osborne's massive spending cuts are a wise or reckless approach to cutting the Britain's record budget deficit (currently estimated at 8 percent of GDP). One of the most remarkable aspects of the cuts from an American perspective, is that they include serious efforts to reduce the size and costs of the British prison population through sentencing reforms. While the previous Labour government had planned to expand the prison capacity (which had already grown massively during Labour's 13 years in power) from 85,000 to 96,000, the Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition plans to cut back, reducing nearly 6,000 jobs from prisons and probation and actually closing prisons. (read Alan Travis analysis of criminal justice cuts in the Guardian)...continue to full post

Full post as published by Governing Through Crime on October 20, 2010 (boomark / email).