In a bid to be ‘tough on crime’, politicians have pushed Britain’s prisons to breaking point

Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood was wise to appoint one of her more rational predecessors, David Gauke, to chair the independent review on sentencing. As Mr Gauke’s report points out, the latest estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales show that there has been an overall decline in incidents of headline crime since 2017. However, Mr Gauke, a practising politician in government for some years, is prepared to concede that political decisions – reflecting intense media and public pressures in a democratic society – have driven the surge in incarceration. Michael Howard, for example, was the home secretary who will forever remembered for his clever but misleading slogan: “Prison works.” He, a barrister, was followed by another former member of the bar, Tony Blair, whose mantra “Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” helped propel him into No 10. Somehow, the probation service needs to be strengthened, as a more economical and effective way to reduce recall and reoffending – and perhaps also make probation panels less risk-averse.