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Reid accused of letting tabloids dictate home affairs agenda

· 'Get tough' justice package angers penal reformers
· Scepticism over ability to deliver more jail places

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Friday July 21, 2006
The Guardian

Penal reformers last night accused the home secretary, John Reid, of surrendering home affairs policy to the tabloids after he unveiled a 24-point "get tough" criminal justice package. The proposals drew immediate comparisons with Michael Howard's infamous 27-point "prison works" crackdown of the early 1990s.
Mr Reid, who is already dealing with a record prison population of 78,000, also faces a warning today from the former top official at the Home Office, Sir John Gieve, that increasing the pressure on prison capacity will significantly increase the risk of disorder and riots.

Mr Reid told the Commons that longer sentences and 8,000 new prison places were needed to protect the "law abiding majority", and insisted that the prison system was currently coping with the record numbers, even though the total rose by 400 in the past week alone

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