![[Logo] The Howard League for Penal Reform](fileadmin/howard_league/template/resources/logo.gif "The Howard League for Penal Reform"){kind=logo}
Do Better Do Less: The report of the Commission on English Prisons Today
Summary
England and Wales has become a jurisdiction which punishes excessively, harshly and with little attention paid to the relationship between legislation and impact on prison numbers. Prison has become the defining tool of the punishment process and we now imprison more of our population than almost any other country in western Europe.
The Commission on English Prisons Today, set up by the Howard League for Penal Reform in 2007, has spent two years reviewing the penal crisis. Do Better Do Less: The report of the Commission on English Prisons Today advocates a new approach of penal moderation and a number of fundamental reforms, including:
- A significant reduction in the prison population and the closure of establishments
- The replacement of short prison sentences with community-based responses
- The dismantling of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), including the break up of the centrally managed prison service
- With local authorities as lead partners, we suggest local strategic partnerships should be formed that bring together representatives from the criminal justice, health and education sectors, with local prison and probation budgets fully devolved and made available for justice reinvestment initiative.
This final report of the Commission on English Prisons Today should be a road-map for long term and fundamental reform. The crisis of excess that has engulfed our penal system must be challenged with new ways of thinking that are fit for the 21st century.
Login required
Please login to download the full report. If you do not have a login, please register.
The Howard League online