PRISON REFORM (No. 3)

That this House notes with concern that the number of men, women and children in prison has reached a record of 70,000; and calls on the Government to implement the five-point programme proposed by the Howard League for Penal Reform, including using executive release powers for prisoners serving less than three months, recommending to the courts that women and children should only be sentenced to prison in exceptional circumstances for serious and violent offences, urging sentencers to reduce sentence lengths for all but the most serious offenders, introducing legislation to put a statutory limit on the numbers that prisons can hold and implementing the Prison Governors' Association proposal to remove from magistrates their power to send people to prison for short periods.