Responding to 2019 Justice Committee prison population report

In response to the Justice Committee prison population report, Nacro Chief Executive, Jacob Tas, said:
“Today’s report from the Justice Select Committee rightly highlights that staffing shortages and other disruptions have severely undermined the delivery of rehabilitative services in prisons. We set out in our evidence the real impact this has on our staff’s ability to deliver much-needed support for people in prison and we support the Committee’s call for proper investment in rehabilitation services.

“We are pleased to see the committee set out again the ineffectiveness of short prison sentences. Our experience shows that they are often too short for any rehabilitative interventions to be effective yet can lead to someone losing their job, home and family ties – leaving a high risk of reoffending on release. In the context of a high and complex prison population, reviewing the approach to sentencing is critical.

“At Nacro, we have long called for a true cross-departmental approach to reduce reoffending and we support the Committee’s focus on this. No one government department can solve this alone.”