– Convicted criminals could
face being banned from going to the pub, music concerts and
sports events such as soccer matches under new plans by the
British government as it seeks ways to address the country’s
overflowing prison crisis.
Under the new sentencing powers, judges would be able to
limit offenders’ freedoms with a range of measures such as
driving limits, travel bans and confining them to certain zones,
moves which the government says will help force them “back onto
the straight-and-narrow”.
“When criminals break society’s rules, they must be
punished. Those serving their sentences in the community must
have their freedom restricted there too,” Justice Secretary
Shabana Mahmood said.
Britain, which has western Europe’s highest rate of
incarceration according to the World Prison Brief database, has
been forced to bring in measures such as releasing prisoners
early to tackle chronic overcrowding in jails.
The government said the new steps to be unveiled on Sunday
were part of wider reforms to cut crime while ensuring there
were enough places for the most dangerous offenders.
Under existing rules, judges can issue soccer match bans to
those who commit crimes inside stadiums but the law will be
changed to allow such bans to be given for any offence in any
circumstance, the government said.
Additionally, all prisoners leaving jail at the end of their
sentence and supervised by the Probation Service could face
similar restrictions as well as mandatory drug testing, rather
than just those with a history of substance misuse.
Anyone who breaks the rules risks being taken back to court<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
– Convicted criminals couldface being banned from going to the pub, music concerts andsports events such as soccer matches under new plans by theBritish government as it seeks ways to address the country’soverflowing prison crisis.Under the new sentencing powers, judges would be able tolimit offenders’ freedoms with a range of measures such asdriving limits, travel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n