Analysis of official data suggests that up to 23,000 #criminals could escape #prison under the Government’s #SentencingBill. @CrimeLineLaw

Analysis of official data suggests that up to 23,000 criminals could escape prison under the Government’s Sentencing Bill, which will create a new legal presumption that offenders facing jail terms of under 12 months should instead be “punished” in the community through unpaid work.

The Ministry of Justice has calculated that some 63% of the offenders could be expected to get suspended sentences under the most likely “central” scenario, meaning 22,934 offenders who were jailed for under 12 months in the year to June 2023 could have benefited from the presumption against prison. According to the analysis, this could have included: 3,852 convicted shoplifters sentenced, on average, to prison terms of 2.1 months; 1,658 people found guilty of common assault (average sentence 2.7 months); 1,537 convicted of assault of an emergency worker (4.2 months); 1,597 burglars (5.2 to 8.1 months); and 345 drug dealers (8.2 months).

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