Prisons crisis: a long-term solution Mahmood can explore right now

With prison capacity at breaking point, few can argue with the government’s need to pull short-term levers to tackle the crisis: releasing hundreds of prisoners earlier than planned and increasing magistrates’ sentencing powers to reduce a record remand population.

Last night, the Ministry of Justice announced a sentencing review to be led by former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke to provide ‘long-term solutions’ to ensure no government ever faces a similar crisis.

We’ll have to wait until next spring to find out what those long-term solutions might be.

But criminal defence firm Commons Legal has helpfully come up with a potential solution that the government could explore right now.

A few weeks ago, the firm unveiled a business case for an expanded pilot of its holistic defence model, known as JUSTICE+.

In 2020, the firm piloted a crisis navigation service to work alongside its criminal defence work. In one case, a young man who had a history of mental health and substance misuse issues, and homelessness, got a two-and-a-half year prison sentence instead of an expected five to seven years. Why? Commons’ crisis navigator helped him keep on top of the various services he needed and coordinate the various professional support involved. The crisis navigator engaged with the client’s mental health worker, with whom the client had a strong relationship. As a result, the mental health worker put forward a strong mitigation statement at the client’s sentencing. Commons Legal says that at the sentencing, the judge made clear that the extensive mitigation prepared had a significant impact on the sentence handed down.

The crisis navigator kept in touch with the client. When he became eligible for release on home detention, the crisis navigator worked with the local housing association to ensure the client could return to his previous accommodation and re-engage with the mental health service he had grown to rely on prior to his imprisonment.

Commons Legal's message is simple: we have modelled a holistic defence approach, it works, set aside some money for a pilot and see for yourself.