THE BRITISH Home Secretary, Mr Michael Howard, defied warnings from the legal establishment yesterday by unveiling"tough" new proposals to jail persistent and serious criminals for life.
To cheers from Tory backbenchers, Mr Howard launched the British government's White Paper, titled "Protecting the Public", at the House of Commons, but he admitted 12 new jails would have to be built for the estimated 10,000 in crease in the prison population.
Mr Howard, who ignored repeated warnings from the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Taylor, and other senior judges that automatic life sentences for violent offenders might lend to an increase in the murder rate, plans to phase in the new measures between now and the year 2017.
Under the proposals, offenders convicted of a second serious violent or sexual crime will be jailed for life unless there were genuinely exceptional circumstances." A US style "three strikes and you're out" rule would apply to drug traffickers, who would face a seven year minimum prison sentence if convicted of a third offence, and burglars, who would receive a minimum three years.
Mr Howard also intends to end automatic remission for prisoners in the hope of cutting reoffending by 20 per cent. Mentally ill prisoners, who serve their sentences in hospital, will now also spend a period in prison before being released.
"These proposals are tough and they should be. They are needed to protect the public and to build a safer Britain. The necessary places will be built and this will require extra resources. But I believe that we simply cannot afford not to take this action," he said.
Labour's shadow home secretary, Mr Jack Straw responded, saying: "You have to acknowledge that these proposals represent a rejection of almost everything the Conservative party has done on sentencing over that last 17 years - during which the crime rate has risen and conviction rates have fallen. This much heralded White Paper does nothing to tackle those problems."
Penal reform organisations also attacked the proposals, describing them as the "worst assault on the principles of justice this century".
Mr Paul Cavadino, chairman of the Penal Affairs Consortium, said Mr Howard had sacrificed justice and the prison system for electoral popularity.
