GOVERNMENT efforts to look “tough on crime” have led to an overwhelmed and ineffective prisons system, a review of last year’s capacity crisis has found.

The Independent Sentencing Review said that the “unstrategic manner” of increasing sentences over decades have meant ways to cut crime and reduce reoffending have been overlooked.

England and Wales have one of the highest prison population rates in western Europe despite an overall decline in crime since the mid-1990s, the review chaired by former justice secretary David Gauke said. 

He criticised politicians for operating in a “vacuum, increasing sentencing for individual crimes without considering the knock-on impact on the wider system.

“It is time to accept this does not deliver justice for victims, it fails them.”

Prison Officers Association (POA) general secretary Steve Gillan said: “This review is well overdue as prisons have just become a dumping ground and an expensive political football to see which political party can be toughest on crime.

“It is crystal clear that as a society we lock up too many people, many of whom would be better served if their addiction, mental health problems, poverty and other issues were addressed in the community.

“We simply cannot continue with the same approach to sentencing and expect prisoner numbers to fall.

“As a trade union we also want a Royal Commission on sentencing to address both the fundamental issues around sentencing policy but also to examine the social and economic drivers of offending and reoffending behaviour.”

The Howard League for Penal Reform’s campaigns director Andrew Neilson said: “Action cannot come quickly enough if we are to achieve a sustainable and more effective course for prisons and probation in the future.”