POLICE SAY PRISON WORKS

Senior police officers have embarked on a collision course with the Home
Secretary, Jack Straw, by asking him to abandon plans for more community
punishments and, instead, to send even more criminals to prison.

The challenge by the Police Superintendents' Association of England and
Wales comes at a time when the prison service is struggling to cope with a
record jail population of 65,000. In a report issued yesterday, the
superintendents said: "In our opinion, prison works. We would encourage the
greater use of imprisonment rather than reducing it." They warned of a rise
in both "vigilante action" and crime if Mr Straw persisted with plans for
more community sentences.

The study, by PSA president Peter Gammon, was received with horror by prison
reformers, who said it was "misconceived and alarming".

But Supt Gammon said: "For the majority of convicted criminals serving
prison sentences, there is no effective alternative. Indeed, we feel that
there are many serving non-custodial sentences who should be in prison. To
reduce the prison population would increase the number of criminals at
liberty to continue their criminal activity."

He added that criminals did not see community sentences as a punishment and
warned of a public outcry if criminals were not behind bars.

The superintendents claim that the recent fall in crime is directly linked
to the rising jail population. They say they have "real concerns" about the
effectiveness of measures such as home curfews and electronic tagging. Their
report - which will be seen by the Home Office as confrontational - was in
response to the Mr Straw's announcement last week of a new UKP250m Crime
Reduction Strategy.

This was based on Home Office research which questioned the efficiency of
putting more police on the streets and challenged the efficacy of custodial
sentencing. The report noted that a 25 per cent increase in the prison
population of England and Wales was needed to achieve a one per cent fall in
crime.

Mr Straw is keen to remove some of the pressure on prisons by making greater
use of tagging and by allowing courts the option of ordering testing for
drugs use as an alternative to prison.

Dr David Wilson, a senior lecturer in criminal justice at the University of
Central England and a former prison governor, said: "Our prison population,
which is at its highest ever level, is not made up of violent serious
offenders. It is made up mainly of relatively minor property offenders, and
every piece of evidence suggests that by locking them up we make matters
worse, not better."

The jail population in England and Wales continues to rise at the rate of
400 a month. Bev Lord of the Prison Officers' Association said: "We are
increasingly unable to cope with the numbers that we have to deal with already."

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett