Commenting on the government’s announcement on investment in the probation service, Bar Council Chair Barbara Mills KC said:
“This announcement recognises that we need a properly resourced regime that reduces crime and increases public confidence and safety in our justice system. The prison crisis and reoffending rates show that we must think more creatively about punishment. Sending people to prison and introducing longer and longer sentences is the easy option, but it is often not the answer.
"Better funding for probation is a pre-requisite for community punishment and home detention measures which can be the right solution in some cases – reform of the criminal justice system must strike the right balance between punishment and rehabilitation. Ultimately, funding across the whole criminal justice system is needed now to repair and tackle its existing problems before we add to more demands to a system at breaking point.”