Prisons not for petty offenders: UK justice secretary
06 Oct 2010
In the UK thousands of yobs and "anti-social petty criminals" will not face jail terms under plans unveiled by Ken Clarke yesterday.
The justice secretary declared only violent, dangerous criminals and gangsters would be jailed.
Instead of incarceration, for less serious offenses, he called tough community sentences to encourage more responsible conduct.
Clarke's comments seem to be squarely opposed to home secretary Theresa May's vow to deal sternly with thugs who terrorise communities.
She called for dangerous offenders to be always punished with prison and said vandalism was not anti-social behaviour but a crime, which calls for a crackdown. Intimidation is not anti-social behaviour, it is crime, she added.
Clarke said it was "absurd" that 53,000 criminals served jail sentences of less than six months in 2008 and two-thirds committed offences again within a year of their release.
