Probation cash to ease jail crowding

They're already full to bursting point and the overcrowding in Britain's jails is getting worse. It's due in part to a crisis in the probation service which means magistrates can't give non-custodial sentences because there simply aren't enough officers to supervise offenders on community service or under curfew.

Our prisons are full up, so the government wants more petty criminals to be punished in the community rather than being sent to jail. But the probation service which handles community sentences is short of cash, so Channel 4 News has learnt the government is being forced to dig into its pockets.

The Ministry of Justice will announce next week an emergency cash injection for the probation service. It's expected to total more than £120m over three years and according to confidential emails I've been passed the explicit purpose of the money is to fund community sentences for criminals who would otherwise have gone to jail instead.

In an email to managers, the director of probation Roger Hill says: "This additional resource is specifically to promote community orders as an alternative wherever possible to short prison sentences."

And a note from another senior probation official adds: "This will mean diverting offenders from short prison sentences into fines, curfews and other appropriate sentencing options."

Probation officers supervise criminals ordered to do unpaid work in the community, or attend programmes to deal with behavioural problems. But according to a survey by the probation union, its members across the country are telling magistrates that they simply don't have the resources to supervise a range of court orders.

Mike Guilfoyle has been a union representative for probation officers for a decade. Recently he's become worried that a lack of resources has delayed treatment programmes for sex offenders and people convicted of domestic violence.

In a statement tonight, the Ministry of Justice confirmed that additional resources were being agreed for the Probation Service in England and Wales, and that parliament would be told once the details were finalised.

It said: "Since 1997 staffing numbers in the Probation Service have increased by over 7,000 and the probation resource budget has increased by nearly 70 per cent in real terms. An additional £17m has also been found for the Probation Service for 2008/2009."

But probation officers say work loads have far outstripped resources over the last decade and that much of the cash has gone on bureaucracy rather than frontline staff.

The justice secretary will next week make clear that he expects the new money to prompt the courts to use non-custodial sentences instead of short jail terms. But magistrates worry their independence risks being compromised, and opposition politicians warn that community sentences are often too soft.

Next week's cash boost is unlikely to be anywhere near enough to avert the current prisons crisis.

Last week, the prison population exceeded official capacity by 156. And letting petty criminals off jail may be politically controversial enough, but the government knows it may also have to revisit even more sensitive measures, such as an extension of the early release scheme, allowing thousands of prisoners out weeks before the end of their sentences.

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