The government’s position is that prison does not work. It aims to reduce prison
numbers and now Ken Clarke has announced that further savings will be made to the criminal justice budget. The Times reports
(£) that Clarke will continue Labour’s policy of closing courts; 103 magistrates courts and 54 county courts will shut up shop.
The Tories campaigned against court-closures at the fag-end of the last government; and there is whispered concern around Whitehall and Westminster that the concrete apparatus of justice is already over-stretched. But, savings must be made. Clarke’s closures will save a paltry £15.3 million from the annual £1.1bn budget; the bulk of cuts will come from reducing the number of contested trials. The government will incentivise confession, awarding lags a 30 percent sentence reduction if they plead guilty at the first opportunity; 25 percent if they plead guilty after the trial date is set; and 10 percent at the door of court.
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