‘Wasteful’ spending of criminal justice system criticised

THE criminal justice system is spending “increasing and wasteful” sums of scare resources with poor results, a conference will hear today.

Penal reform and children’s groups are calling for a shift from criminal justice to social justice, claiming that “modest investments” in under-resourced communities would have greater positive benefits in reducing offending, as well as wider social benefits.

The groups point out that the number of people in prison had doubled from 2,180 in 1990 to 4,491 in 2010, with the prison population rising by 10% a year.