South Holland and the Deepings Conservative MP Sir John Hayes speaks out against Labour Party’s plans to cut prison time for offenders
An MP has spoken out against plans to cut jail time served by prisoners - arguing criminality is ‘not an illness, but a malevolent choice’.
Sir John Hayes told Parliament that he and his South Holland and the Deepings constituents were ‘shocked’ by Government proposals that could see inmates serving just 40% of their sentences.
He also raised concerns about what he described as a national ‘shoplifting epidemic’.
“Too often when we debate crime, lawlessness and order in this Chamber, we give too little regard to the victims of crime,” Sir John said during a commons debate on Tuesday (July 23).
“We simply must end the culture, which has pervaded for most of my lifetime, of believing that crime is an illness; to be treated. It is not an illness; it is a malevolent choice made by those who are careless of the harm they do.
“When we understand that, we understand why the principal objective of the criminal justice system must be punishment.”
This statement saw Sarah Champion, Labour MP for Rotherham, ask Sir John whether he believed ‘people are born wicked?’
He responded by stating ‘human beings are capable of the greatest wickedness and the greatest good’.
“Of course people have the capacity to do good, but we know too that people can do the most dreadful things, and when they do so it is absolutely right that law-abiding decent patriotic people see that they get their just deserts,” he continued.
“That is not a strange or curious idea; it is one that has informed most criminal justice systems in all civilisations for all of time, and the most obvious way of ensuring that people who do harm get their just deserts is to incarcerate them.
“That brings me to the second principle of the criminal justice system, which is that we take people out of harm’s way. The best way of doing that is to imprison those who seek to do harm.
“I am shocked, as are my constituents, that the Government now intend to let more of those dangerous people on to our streets.”
The Government are considering lowering the automatic release point for prisoners from the 50% mark to around 40% in a bid to battle prison overcrowding.
“We are now told that people will be released—including people who have done violent things, who have hurt and damaged other people’s lives—after they have served 40% of their sentence,” Sir John said.
“When most people I represent hear of a sentence for such crimes, they assume that people will serve 100% of it.”
Sir John continued by arguing ‘we simply cannot subject the British people to the fear, and not only fear but the reality, of letting out of prison others who would do them harm’.
He also quoted criminologist Philip Bean, who said ‘retribution has to be a core part of what the public see in order to maintain their faith in the system and in what the Government and the authorities are doing’.
This prompted Mid Norfolk Conservative George Freeman to question the role of rehabilitation and community sentences in the judicial system, adding: “I do not want chain gangs in Norfolk and Lincolnshire, but good community service, where people can see that they are actually putting something back into society, would ease a lot of pressure on the system.”
While Sir John accepted ‘community sentences can play a part’ he remained unperturbed.
“It is fact that 10% of convicted criminals are responsible for half of all convictions. It is true, too, that those individuals are known and can be identified and must not be released in the way that has been suggested,” he countered.
“Yet, disturbingly, the new Prisons Minister is on the record as saying: ‘we’re addicted to sentencing, we’re addicted to punishment. So many people who are in prison, in my view, shouldn’t be there’.”
“That is both the opposite of the truth and anything but what most people think.”
Sir John also highlighted what he believed to be a rise in theft from businesses.
“We have a shoplifting epidemic in Britain. Police forces do not respond to almost nine out of 10 serious incidents and UK retailers already spend around £1 billion each year on trying to deal with a problem with which they struggle to cope,” he said.
“Many offenders persistently commit crimes and get away with it.
“So let us, in this debate and in the programme that follows it, not simply rely on wishful thinking but face up to the profound truths which seem to have escaped the notice of Labour Governments forever and, too often, of Conservative Governments too: reflecting the sentiments of the vast majority of law-abiding people means the guilty must be punished and the innocent must be protected.”
