Why Sentencing is Out of Control

Why is UK penal policy failing so badly? 

This week, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC are joined by former Secretary of State for Justice David Gauke, who has just published Part 1 of his Independent Review into Sentencing. In the face of falling crime, why do we have the highest prison population in Western Europe, and why can’t we reduce our expensive addiction to incarceration?  

The discussion looks at how other countries have embarked on a process of prison closures, and questions why a decades long penal arms race between the main UK political parties prevents us from doing the same.

Ken and Tim go on to review the Lady Chief Justice’s recent criticism of Kemi Badenoch and Keir Starmer, as she accuses them of completely misunderstanding a recent judgment granting a Gazan family leave to remain in the UK. Was Lady Carr right to intervene in this way?