The government’s new Sentencing Bill represents a significant shift in criminal justice policy, with measures that will directly impact the lives of people in prison and those with criminal records. As an organisation that supports these communities, we see both encouraging developments and concerning gaps.
Welcome Changes
Presumption to suspend short sentences: The presumption against custodial sentences of 12 months or less is long overdue. Short sentences are notoriously ineffective at reducing reoffending and often cause more harm than good by disrupting housing, employment, and family relationships without providing time for meaningful rehabilitation.
Earlier release points: Moving sentence release from 50% to one-third will help address severe overcrowding while allowing more time for community-based rehabilitation – though this must be coupled with adequate probation resources.
Community sentence improvements: The automatic reduction in unpaid work hours for compliance and early termination of orders when objectives are met provides genuine incentives for engagement and recognizes progress.
End of post-sentence supervision: Removing ineffective post-sentence supervision for sentences under two years acknowledges what probation practitioners have long known – this system was poorly designed and resource-intensive without clear benefits.
Missed Opportunities
Licence conditions expansion: While we understand the political pressure to appear tough, expanding restrictive licence conditions risks creating new barriers to successful reintegration. Driving bans and restriction zones may sound reasonable but can severely limit employment opportunities and social connections that prevent reoffending.
Publication of names and photos: The new power for probation services to publish names and photographs of people doing unpaid work appears designed for political optics rather than rehabilitation. While exemptions and safeguarding principles are promised, this risks undermining the resettlement process and perpetuating stigma when people are trying to move forward with their lives.
Recall changes: While the move to 56-day fixed-term recalls may reduce some Parole Board backlogs, the expanded grounds for continued detention and new categories of exclusions suggest a system still biased toward custody over community management.
What’s Still Missing
This Bill focuses heavily on sentence management but fails to address fundamental issues: chronic underfunding of rehabilitation programs, inadequate mental health support, insufficient housing and employment assistance, and the broader social factors that drive crime.
Real reform requires investment in the services and support systems that help people build crime-free lives, not just new ways to manage sentences more efficiently.
Moving Forward
We will continue monitoring how these changes affect the people we support. The test of any sentencing reform is not whether it sounds tough or progressive, but whether it actually helps people leave crime behind and contributes to genuine public safety.
The government deserves credit for tackling some long-standing problems in our sentencing system. But lasting change requires sustained investment in rehabilitation and support – something this Bill, while useful, cannot deliver alone.
The Oswin Project supports people in prison and those with criminal records to rebuild their lives and contribute positively to their communities.
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