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7 December 2010
Last updated at 03:50 ET
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Ken Clarke: "Serious knife crimes will get serious prison sentences, but we're not setting absolute tariffs"
Ken Clarke has promised to end the "remorseless rise" in prisoner numbers by tackling the causes of reoffending.
The justice secretary said there would be extra help to deal with inmates' drug and alcohol addiction and greater emphasis on treating mental illness.
A Green Paper, to be unveiled later, will put the emphasis on making prisons in England and Wales more purposeful and toughening up community sentences.
Mr Clarke said he hoped to cut the 85,000 inmate population by 3,000.
The reforms are driven by a need to reduce the £4bn prison and probation budget by 20% over four years.
Mr Clarke told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We need to get on with rehabilitating prisoners."
He added: "It will stop the remorseless rise, the huge increase in the number of people in prison...
"Some of my critics just say we should put more and more people in prison for longer and longer. I don't think that's the best way of protecting society."
Knife pledge dropped Mr Clarke also said: "I think the prison system is not doing some of the things it's meant to do. That's stopping us preventing the rise of a criminal under-class who commit more crime when they are out."
The justice secretary said the system currently did too little to treat inmates with drink and drug problems and mental illness, and failed to prepare those released from prison for a productive later life.
In the Green Paper, the government is expected to propose measures to restrict the use of indeterminate sentences, extend the use of bail for suspects and give greater sentence reductions for defendants who plead guilty early.
BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the key reform would be to make community sentences a more credible alternative to custody.
Mr Clarke believes unpaid work schemes undertaken by offenders should be more punitive, with activities becoming more physical and intense.
But plans in the Conservative manifesto for prisoners to "earn" their release, as part of a so-called Min-Max sentencing regime, have been scrapped, as has the pledge that anyone convicted of a knife crime can expect a jail term.
Asked by BBC political editor Nick Robinson on Monday whether people caught carrying knives could expect a lesser punishment, Mr Clarke said: "Anybody who is guilty of serious knife crime will go to prison but I'm not in favour of absolute rules.
"I'm in favour of actually allowing judges to see how nasty the offender is, see what the offence was, see what the best way of protecting the public from him is."
In the Conservative election manifesto, the party said four out of five people convicted of a knife crime did not go to prison and they would send a "serious, unambiguous message that carrying a knife is totally unacceptable".
The document said: "We will make it clear that anyone convicted of a knife crime can expect to face a prison sentence."
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Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.Ken Clarke: "Serious knife crimes will get serious prison sentences, but we're not setting absolute tariffs"
Ken Clarke has promised to end the "remorseless rise" in prisoner numbers by tackling the causes of reoffending.
The justice secretary said there would be extra help to deal with inmates' drug and alcohol addiction and greater emphasis on treating mental illness.
A Green Paper, to be unveiled later, will put the emphasis on making prisons in England and Wales more purposeful and toughening up community sentences.
Mr Clarke said he hoped to cut the 85,000 inmate population by 3,000.
The reforms are driven by a need to reduce the £4bn prison and probation budget by 20% over four years.
Mr Clarke told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We need to get on with rehabilitating prisoners."
He added: "It will stop the remorseless rise, the huge increase in the number of people in prison...
"Some of my critics just say we should put more and more people in prison for longer and longer. I don't think that's the best way of protecting society."
Knife pledge dropped Mr Clarke also said: "I think the prison system is not doing some of the things it's meant to do. That's stopping us preventing the rise of a criminal under-class who commit more crime when they are out."
The justice secretary said the system currently did too little to treat inmates with drink and drug problems and mental illness, and failed to prepare those released from prison for a productive later life.
In the Green Paper, the government is expected to propose measures to restrict the use of indeterminate sentences, extend the use of bail for suspects and give greater sentence reductions for defendants who plead guilty early.
BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the key reform would be to make community sentences a more credible alternative to custody.
Mr Clarke believes unpaid work schemes undertaken by offenders should be more punitive, with activities becoming more physical and intense.
But plans in the Conservative manifesto for prisoners to "earn" their release, as part of a so-called Min-Max sentencing regime, have been scrapped, as has the pledge that anyone convicted of a knife crime can expect a jail term.
Asked by BBC political editor Nick Robinson on Monday whether people caught carrying knives could expect a lesser punishment, Mr Clarke said: "Anybody who is guilty of serious knife crime will go to prison but I'm not in favour of absolute rules.
"I'm in favour of actually allowing judges to see how nasty the offender is, see what the offence was, see what the best way of protecting the public from him is."
In the Conservative election manifesto, the party said four out of five people convicted of a knife crime did not go to prison and they would send a "serious, unambiguous message that carrying a knife is totally unacceptable".
The document said: "We will make it clear that anyone convicted of a knife crime can expect to face a prison sentence."
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