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Penal System

The hon. Lady is right and that is the substance of what I shall say shortly. Prison works in the sense that it stops offenders knocking people over the head or robbing their homes while they are inside. It does not act as a deterrent—that is obvious from the statistics—and it does not reduce reoffending. We have an extraordinary rate of recidivism. In rehabilitation terms, we have a process that does not work. The Liberal Democrats have called for some time for an evidence-based approach, whereby we support the processes that work and reject those that do not in reducing crime and offending. The public do not want more people in prison; they want less crime on our streets. We therefore need urgently to stabilise and then reduce the prison population.