Labour Policy Watch: Crime

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Crime
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	Under the Tories, levels of crime more than doubled and were met by a tough regime of increased police powers and increased jail sentences. Prison populations rose and new (often privately-run) jails were built, but the proportion of crimes solved fell. Levels of crime generally paralleled those of poverty and exclusion, but the Tories saw this only as an excuse. Some new laws restricted civil liberties, potentially criminalising raves, the discussion of homosexuality and even gathering in groups. Control over the police was increasingly centralised under the Home Secretary.
	Labour policy was:
	1	A Crime Prevention Act giving local authorities a lead role in ensuring community safety is considered when planning housing, youth facilities, etc.
	2	To use prison as a last resort, and particularly to use it less for the young, drug users and those on remand awaiting trial
	3	To allow more flexible sentencing, e.g. ending 3-strikes-and-out and the mandatory life sentence for murder
	4	To vary levels of fines according to the ability to pay
	5	To use probation to help and supervise offenders, not for surveillance
	6	That nobody should be convicted on confession evidence alone
	7	To establish a fully independent police complaints authority
	8	To reduce the Home Secretary's control over the police and restore local accountability
	9	To regulate the private security industry and stop its encroachment into police functions like patrolling the highway
	10	To take privatised prisons back into the public sector
	In fact under New Labour:
	1	This approach was started but then underfunded and suffered from central interference, target-setting and reorganisations
	2	The prison population, including vulnerable groups, rose to new records
	3	The independence of judges' sentencing was further reduced
	4	This proposal resurfaced once but was not implemented
	5	?
	6	?
	7	This was achieved
	8	Centralisation actually increased, e.g. with a threat to take over "failing" forces
	9	Private security firms were regulated but they still took over police functions
	10	Private prisons remained, more were built and old ones were privatised
	In addition:
		There was a return to blaming families, not social conditions, for crime
		ASBOs could be imposed for actions which were not crimes and need not be proved to a criminal standard
		Civil liberties were further restricted, e.g. it became a crime to speak in favour of a foreign armed struggle, which would have criminalised the anti-apartheid movement
		Peaceful demonstrators, e.g. May Day protestors, were very harshly treated
		Police could arrest, fingerprint and take DNA evidence for any (trivial) offence
		In Blair's 10 years 3,600 new criminal offences were created
		Soldiers who refused to serve in a foreign military occupation could be jailed for life
		Recorded crime fell steeply though crimes like credit card fraud were no longer recorded
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