Summary
The UK government is planning to expand the use of community service for convicted criminals. Offenders might work on tasks like filling potholes and cleaning bins instead of serving short prison sentences, to help manage prison overcrowding.
Key Facts
- The plan involves having offenders do unpaid community work, like filling potholes and cleaning bins.
- Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood wants probation teams to coordinate with local councils for job assignments.
- Private companies could employ offenders for community work, and their wages go into a fund for victims.
- An independent review on sentencing by David Gauke will be published soon, focusing on community-based sentences.
- Prisons in the UK are overcrowded, prompting these new measures to find alternative sentences.
- Up to 1,000 inmates will be released early to free up space in prisons.
- A £4.7 billion investment is planned to build more prisons in the UK.
- Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick criticized the early release plan, saying it doesn't protect the public.
