PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
COMMUNITY SENTENCES (12 January 2012)

That this House recognises the contribution community sentences make to reducing reoffending rates and keeping communities safer as a result; notes that community sentences cost on average a tenth of what it costs to send a person to prison for a year; further notes that community sentences offer a proportionate response to relatively minor offences in comparison to short-term prison sentences which often result in loss of employment, family breakdown and homelessness; further notes that community sentences can challenge and change people for the better compared to short-term prison sentences during which prisoners are left idle in their cells for most of the day; further notes that in 2009 57 per cent. of people who served a short-term prison sentence reoffended within one year of release compared to a significantly lower reoffending rate for community sentences; supports the Howard League for Penal Reform's Community sentences cut crime campaign; and believes that in order for reoffending ratesin England and Wales to fall there needs to begreater use of community sentencing rather than ineffective and expensive short-term prison sentences.