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 children, etc., has risen to new records
	3	The flexibility of sentencing has been further reduced
	4	This proposal resurfaced recently but has not been implemented
	5	?
	6	?
	7	This has been achieved
	8	Centralisation has actually increased, e.g. with a threat to take over "failing" forces
	9	Private security firms are now regulated but they still take over police functions
	10	Private prisons remain, more have been built and old ones have been privatised
	In addition:
		There has been a return to blaming families, not social conditions, for crime
		ASBOs can be imposed for actions which are not crimes and need not be proved to a criminal standard
		Civil liberties have been further restricted, e.g. it is 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, have been very harshly treated
		Police can arrest, fingerprint and take DNA evidence for any (trivial) offence
		Cannabis has been downgraded from a class B to a class C drug
		Soldiers who refuse to serve in a foreign military occupation can be jailed for life
		Recorded crime has now been falling for 5 years (update)
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