Police Chief backs justice reform

In the interview, Mr Strang supported the concept of “restorative
justice”, which would make more minor offenders face up to the
consequences of their actions through community-based sentences rather
than brief spells behind bars.

He added: “The evidence is that sending people to prison for a short
time does little to reduce offending in the long-term. In fact there is
an argument that it is likely to lead to increased offending, partly
because the prison service says there is little it can do with someone
who is only in for a few weeks.”

Highlighting the role of
alcohol in offending, he added: “On a daily basis in terms of the calls
we receive, alcohol is by far the greatest cause of incidence of crime:
crime of violence, drink-driving, disorder. If you take a more
thoughtful approach alcohol causes a lot of problems.”

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