Freed mentally ill prisoners could 'bump someone off' - but they should NOT be in prison, claims Ken Clarke
By Simon WaltersLast updated at 2:56 AM on 12th December 2010
- Justice Secretary Ken Clarke says it's 'loopy' to send all criminals to jail
- He's labelled 'pig-headed' by chief Tory opponent MP Philip Davies
The Justice Secretary said it was ‘loopy’ to claim crime could be solved by sending all criminals to jail.
And he airily dismissed reports that he had clashed with David Cameron over his prison shake-up, saying: ‘I’m not going to start analysing the Prime Minister. He’s not where I am in the party, that’s true.’
Defiant: Ken Clarke, left, is determined to press ahead with the 'rehab revolution' but Shipley MP Philip Davies, right, has branded his statement and plans as 'pig-headed'
Mr Clarke defended his policy of reducing the number of mentally ill and drug addicts in jail.
‘Most members of the public, if they met some of the mentally ill people in prison would think, “What on earth is this person doing here?” People would be shocked by how bad the conditions are in some prisons. People think they are hotels. There are quite a few hard nicks out there that would dispel that myth.’
Asked what would happen if a mentally unstable offender released under his new regime stabbed someone to death, Mr Clarke said: ‘The first time someone bumps someone off the fortnight after they are let out, there will be absolute outrage.
'But you have to explain to the sensible public that you can’t give an absolute guarantee.
‘It’s about greatly reducing the risk of incidents like this happening. We can do that by providing these people with proper treatment.’
He acknowledged: ‘I suppose I’m more liberal than most Conservatives.’
Mr Clarke said he is determined to press ahead with what he calls a ‘rehabilitation revolution’ designed to curb the high rate of re-offending by prisoners.
Friction: Jack Straw, left, voiced fears Ken Clarke's plans could lead to lawlessness while Prime Minister David Cameron, right, slapped him down over abolishing minimum term sentences for murderers
He says it is a vital part of his plan to reverse the doubling in the prison population to 85,000 since the early Nineties. He said: ‘Crime is also caused by social, educational and economic factors, but it’s loopy to think you can solve it by locking everyone up. No one can argue that what we are doing now isn’t a failure.’
Contrary to Press reports, Mr Clarke said he did not intend to scrap all minimum recommended sentences for killers.
‘Murder is murder. Parliament must have a role in setting that sentence. But (the present guidelines) are nonsense. Why is it more serious for a battered wife to pick up a kitchen knife and stab her husband than for someone slowly to poison to death an old lady for her money?’
He defended judges against claims that they are all ‘wets and can’t be trusted’, saying: ‘I trust the judges more than some people do.
‘When I started they were seen as elderly, reactionary, savage men who didn’t understand the lives of ordinary people and imposed wicked long sentences.’
Mr Clarke, who is 70 and entered the Commons in 1970 when Mr Cameron was just three years old, played down persistent reports that the Prime Minister believes he is taking far too soft a line on crime and punishment.
And he denied Mr Cameron had slapped him down over his proposal to abolish the minimum term murderers must serve before they can be let back on to the streets on parole.
‘Of course you do have to touch base with the Prime Minister,’ Mr Clarke observed casually. ‘We discussed it and it was all cleared, it didn’t take very long.
‘It was nothing like the meetings I had with Margaret Thatcher over health reforms when we had blazing rows. There isn’t a difference between us. I’m not going to start analysing the Prime Minister. He’s not where I am in the party, that’s true. He is Eurosceptic.
Murderer: Mentally ill Stephen Newton, left, stabbed 75-year-old Philip Hendy in 2007 and schizophrenic Benjamin Franklum, right, plunged a knife into Daniel Quelch, 33, in the same year
'It is a false argument for him to claim that those of us who want criminals sent to prison somehow do not believe in rehabilitation. It is a question of where the rehabilitation takes place.’
Conservative MPs are divided over laid-back grandee Mr Clarke. Some say his experience is a huge asset, but others claim his off-hand manner is as damaging as his lenient stance on prisons.
When popular ‘Cameron Cutie’ Essex Tory MP Priti Patel asked him for an assurance last week that scrapping laws designed to keep paedophiles behind bars until they are no longer dangerous would not backfire, Mr Clarke scoffed at ‘loony tunes’ critics.
'Pretty glib': Julian Hendy, pictured with his murdered father Philip, is unimpressed by Clarke's comments
And former Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw says he fears Mr Clarke’s policies will lead to more lawlessness not less.
Film-maker Julian Hendy, whose father Philip was murdered in Bristol in 2007 by a mentally unstable man with a history of criminal behaviour, said Mr Clarke ‘sounded pretty glib’.
Mr Hendy, who spent nearly three years researching mental health homicides in Britain after the murder, said: ‘I’d like to meet Ken Clarke to talk about the reality of losing someone to someone who has mental health problems.
‘Every year, 100 people are killed by someone who has mental health problems. It would be OK to release them if they were to get proper treatment – but the system is simply not up to it.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1337842/People-accept-possibility-freed-mentally-ill-criminals-bump-says-Ken-Clarke.html#ixzz17sb3AJ7Y
