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Prisons and Probation

My Lords, as I said, there will not be a reduction in the Probation Service in the year ahead. However, all parts of national life are affected by our economic difficulties. I have explained why the Government feel it is necessary to imprison those who have committed persistent, serious and dangerous offences. We have imprisoned many more of those people than were imprisoned in the past because the rate of conviction has gone up. The noble Lord is, of course, right that community sentences are appropriate for those who have committed offences which would otherwise require a short prison sentence. That is why over the past few years we have put a lot of money into community sentences and will continue to do so. There is no great delight in sending people to prison, but to a greater or lesser extent society needs to be protected from people who have committed serious offences. I believe that if you asked anyone outside this House whether that was so, they would say, "Of course, you don’t want to incarcerate them for ever. You want to reform them and rehabilitate them". That is what our proposals are intended to do. Prisoners should be in modern cells in modern prisons with courses available, and should be offered every opportunity to leave prison and lead a lawful life.