Question: If you could fix prisons in any way how would you change them?

Laura Hemming answered on 21 Jun 2018:

Great question! I’ve thought about this a lot and I think my answer is that we should get rid of short sentences. There’s lots of evidence which shows that people actually pick up worse habits from being in prison including things like substance misuse and they are more likely to reoffend. Instead, it would be much better for people who have committed less serious crimes to be sentenced to something much more meaningful which could help them to change their lives for the better. This would be far more impactful and much more likely to cause the offender to change their behaviour than would a short stay in prison. Incidentally, the charity ‘Revolving Doors’ are currently running a campaign which advocates for this change. You can read more about this below:

http://www.revolving-doors.org.uk/blog/short-sentences-are-shortsighted