Clarke is right to focus on reoffenders

The Justice Secretary Ken Clarke – who was away during the disturbances last month – has signalled his return with an uncharacteristically tough piece in today’s Guardian.

The reference to the rioters as a “feral underclass” is not language that the penal reform lobby will welcome from their favourite Minister, but it does signal a firmer line from the Justice Secretary:

“In my view, the riots can be seen in part as an outburst of outrageous behaviour by the criminal classes – individuals and families familiar with the justice system, who haven’t been changed by their past punishments.”

This reference to the criminal classes is what police officers will recognise – a minority of workless families whose members are violent and disengaged and who support themselves through the benefits system and proceeds of crime. Clarke is right to focus on this social context, but the failure of the system to deliver on “past punishments” is the real policy agenda inside government that has been advanced by the riots.

Analysis showed that almost three-quarters of those charged for riot offences had previous convictions, proving that the majority were not opportunists but habitual offenders – many of them older and prolific – who had not desisted from crime despite previous sanctions.