London: should we be more lenient on prison sentences?

Jail sentences are costing £50,000 per inmate. Should we more lenient on sentences to save money, or are we too lenient already?

Transcript

00:00 It's a tough one. I've known people who've worked in the prison service.

00:04 Should we be more lenient? I don't know. Who should we be more lenient to? Certainly not

00:12 violent offenders. It's a really tough one.

00:18 If people, if there was more community services, they've been closed down, so many of them,

00:22 if people had help from the community, I don't think they'd be driven to do the things that

00:27 they do and get into such trouble. And also they wouldn't feel so isolated. There'd be

00:31 less mental health problems if we were more communal and if more money was put into that.

00:36 I'm not sure we are, I'm not sure about leniency. I don't know whether that's actually the point.

00:43 I think that people are often sent to prison for crimes that are, that they could benefit

00:49 from maybe having more help than punishment. If it's a very serious crime, then people,

00:55 then obviously leniency isn't necessarily the right approach.