Howard policies 'failing to deter crime'

Michael Howard's "prison works" criminal justice policies have been called into question by the latest figures showing that despite locking up record numbers of inmates, crime is again on the increase.

The news is deeply embarrassing for the Home Secretary whose law and order credentials in the run-up to a general election are pinned toharsher prison terms and giving police and prosecutors extra powers.

It will also strengthen the arm of the judiciary in their opposition to Mr Howard's latest crime initiative of introducing tougher minimum sentences for a wide range of criminals - from burglars and drug dealers to rapists. Lord Taylor, the Lord Chief Justice, has said that what deters crime is prevention and getting caught - not the threat of a longer spell in prison.

Yesterday, the Government sought to contain the damage, claiming in the Commons that the leaked note of a meeting of senior Home Office officialscontained inaccuracies. The memorandum said that for the past six months crime has been rising despite the fact the courts have been sending people to jail in record numbers. The prison population now stands at 54,178 - far higher than civil servants were predicting and at a rate far outpacing the prison building programme. Crown Courts are sending 20 per cent more people to jail than three years ago.

John Major told the Commons that although monthly figures were volatile "there is no doubt that crime fell in the last two months of 1995".

However, compared with the year before, the figures had risen and Jack Straw, Labour's home affairs spokesman, said the figures "seriously undermine" Mr Howard's claim to be turning the tide on crime. "Both he and the Prime Minister have dined out on recent minor falls in the recorded figures, yet crime rose in the last six months of last year and the trend appears to be continuing into 1996."

Paul Cavadino, chair of the Penal Affairs Consortium, said: "In just three years the Home Secretary's penal policies have shattered the rational approach of his predecessors and have shifted the emphasis towards toughness for its own sake rather than effective justice. Overcrowded and overstretched prisons do not work. Instead they turn out embittered, hardened individuals who are far more likely to re-offend."