The Tory Justice Secretary has compared short prison sentences to the taxpayers paying for a £48,000 bed and breakfast.
Alex Chalk said he wants low-level criminals to be "punished" in the community "by repaying their debt to society by cleaning up neighbourhoods and scrubbing graffiti off walls". He is putting pressure on the Prime Minister to bring forward new legislation to scrap prison sentences of less than a year for most criminals, in a bid to free up prison places and cut reoffending rates.
Speaking to LBC on Friday, said: “What I want to do is make sure we pull on every lever, which is to increase the supply of prison places, that's absolutely right. But also make sure so that the really scary, dangerous people have got to be locked up for longer, people we can rehabilitate, we should rehabilitate, and punish in the community.
“Because if you did that, right, it's not just that society is having the original offence, but if they're banged up for very short sentences, then society is also having to pay for Bed and Breakfast at a cost of £47-£48,000 a year.”
Short sentences have worse outcomes, with 63% of people who serve a prison sentence of less than 12 months reoffending within one year, according to analysis by the Prison Reform Trust. Mr Chalk has pledged to end the "merry-go-round" of reoffending by legislating for a presumption against prison sentences of less than 12 months".
He said: "Instead of going to prison, the lowest risk and first-time offenders will be given a chance to turn themselves away from a life of crime by repaying their debt to society by cleaning up neighbourhoods and scrubbing graffiti off walls." The Sentencing Bill, which will put this policy into law, is currently passing through the Commons but at a slow pace.
Mr Chalk last week confirmed emergency measures to release offenders up to two months early to free up space in jails. He has extended an early release scheme introduced in October that allowed governors to let people out 18 days early. It has been extended to 35-60 days.
According to MoJ figures, the prison population stood at 88,220 as of March 8. The operational capacity is a little over 89,000. Prisons charity, the Howard League, states that the prison estate should not hold more than 79,597 people.