Knife crime: imprisoning dogma

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/09/editorial-knife-crime-imprisoning-dogma

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Not long ago a disgruntled Liberal Democrat rightwinger, Jeremy Browne, came close to saying that if his party didn't exist, you wouldn't invent it. Locked into Conservative cuts, averaging single digits in the polls, and facing painful elections this month, the Lib Dems are easy for opponents to knock. Yet by making a brave stand over knife crime against both of Westminster's bigger gangs this week, Nick Clegg has shown that there are times when the Lib Dem voice remains as distinct as it is necessary.

New Labour never said it wanted to double the prison population over early 1990s levels, yet that is what it steadily did, even as crime fell. With almost half of those jailed getting caught reoffending within a year of release, cost-benefit analysis would not endorse this as a sensible way to spend nearly £40,000 each year on more than 80,000 people. But turning the tide requires more than moaning about general trends. It requires standing up against particular get-tough plans which together drive the numbers – and yet which, in isolation, always have plausible sounding justifications.

Mr Clegg is making just such a stand against a Conservative proposal that anyone caught with a knife for a second time should automatically go to jail. After the hideous stabbing of teacher Ann Maguire, even considering giving blade-carriers a "third chance" is obviously a difficult sell. But the deputy prime minister made his case, and on talk radio. All reason is on his side. The issue here is not threatening with a knife, still less wounding with one, where a first, never mind a second, offence would often land the wielder behind bars. Prison is already an option across the range of offences, so the extra cases caught by making it automatic would very likely be scared young men who carry a blade in the deluded belief that this will make them safer. Some will have aggressive intent to be sure, others will merely be defensive. Statute is never going to distinguish the two sorts of cases, a good judge might. Such judge's discretion needs to be defended.

When the coalition was in its first flush, it gave at least some sign of being willing to listen to this sort of argument. As the justice secretary, Ken Clarke, came up with particular plans to get prison numbers down, he ran into trouble and the Conservative party slowly reverted to type. As for Ed Miliband, he initially disowned New Labour's authoritarianism and vowed not to play politics with the Clarke agenda. Today, however, he dooms Mr Clegg's stand by signalling support for the latest Tory trapdoor to prison, while whispering soothing words about getting the details right. Neither Labour nor the Conservatives are, on their own, going to break out of their imprisoning dogma.