Former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke says short prison terms should be replaced with more community sentences for some offenders. Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood will publish the findings of Mr Gauke's independent review into sentencing today. Report by Blairm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
00:00We think that too many people go inside for a short period of time, they then come out unprepared for reintegration into the community, that short sentence if anything has put them back, if they've got a job they've lost it, if they've got a home very often they've lost that, family relationships are damaged, so instead we think stronger community sentences can be more effective.
00:23We also think that there is an important place for intensive supervision courts, problem solving courts that address the underlying issues, have the discipline of a court's process but nonetheless try to solve what is causing the criminal behaviour in the first place.
00:40There will be fewer who will go to prison but I think the point I would make here is what most victims want is to ensure that there are fewer crimes in future, that there are fewer victims and we do have to ask ourselves what is going to be the most effective way in which we can address that.
00:57And yes, punishment is important and prison is important but they're not the only parts of the criminal justice system and the criminal justice system as a whole has got to be really effective in ensuring that if you've got a criminal they stop committing crimes in future and short sentences in particular, the evidence points, the fact that in most cases it really doesn't help, really doesn't deter but there are other things that we can do that will be more beneficial.
