Sitting in Manchester Magistrates Court waiting to visit the cells, in my role as the court Duty Solicitor. I reflect, as an ‘old boy’ , how in 35 years, things have changed. One matter I have noticed is the increase in sentences.
Here are the thoughts of Paul Collins former director of the Judicial Studies Board. – Imagine they are a bunch of pale stale of white men.

“In the 1990s, judges attending Judicial Studies Board seminars would hear the late David Faulkner, a humane and immensely knowledgable Home Office star, explain how German prison sentences were so much shorter than ours, with no corresponding increase in offending. Politicians, terrified of being pilloried for being soft on crime, have never taken any notice. The problem is that we have no principled national idea of what prison is for (Editorial, 12 December).

As a junior assistant recorder, I did my duty and gave long sentences to drug mules from South America, based on the ludicrous theory that the deterrent effect would resound with other potential drug mules, often semi-literate women coerced into criminal activity with no conception of the consequences. Retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation? Some shapeless idea of punishment for its own sake is the unquantifiable last refuge of the ideologically barren. But it’s all we seem to have.

Cutting sentences in half for every non-violent prisoner (I am including serious sexual offenders in the violent category), and spending half the savings on decent education and rehabilitation programmes for the remainder, who are coming out one day under any regime, would do better for the current crisis than any alternative our current politicians have in mind. And the rate of offending wouldn’t go up.”
Paul Collins

I actually read this letter, in the Guardian, I’ve copied it, if that’s ok with copy right etc. Totally agree