Criminals should wear uniforms during community punishment, says Sir Ian Blair

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 20:33 EST, 12 November 2008

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Sir Ian Blair says forcing criminals to wear uniforms during community punishment will restore confidence in the courts

Criminals ordered to work for their community should be forced to wear uniforms, Sir Ian Blair said tonight.

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner said visible punishment is the only way to convince the public the criminal justice system works.

He said offenders wearing high visibility vests is 'unpalatable' but could help restore confidence in the courts.

Speaking at the annual Longford lecture, Britain's most senior police officer said the public will always want criminals locked up if they see nothing else is effective.

He said: 'The community does not understand because it has no information about how the criminal justice system gets results.

'While many people accept prisons are not the answer to everything, they do not believe community sentences work because they do not see them happen.'

Speaking about how that could change, he added: 'Community punishments are visible.

'People are in uniform actually on the streets doing jobs and people can see those people have been sentenced to a community project.

'It does not look very comfortable and therefore something is happening.'

In one of his last speaking engagements before he steps down on December 1, Sir Ian batted aside several questions from the public about his future.

But he showed no sign of wanting to bow out of the media spotlight as he admitted his opinion on uniforms for offenders could 'create a stir'.

He was joined by Phil Wheatley, director of the National Offender Management Service, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC and academic Jason Warr at Church Hall, Westminster.

The speakers were brought together to debate 'We can't build our way out of the prisons crisis' in memory of the late politician and campaigner Lord Longford.

Sir Ian said the Government should not try to build more prisons as a 'moral principle' and probably could not afford to anyway.

He said only a hardcore of serious, violent repeat offenders need to be jailed while most prisoners are 'inadequate' people with poor education, dysfunctional families and no role models.

The police officer said pressure from the media and some political commentators shapes how the Government handles prison reform.

He said: 'There is an element of media and political commentary indicating the only answer is to lock them up and everything else is namby-pamby.

'But actually when you get into conversation with the public they recognise this is not the answer.

'One of the reasons there is so much public concern is they do not believe the criminal justice system is working.'

Sir Ian also called for more openness in youth courts and for more effective punishments for those who commit offences while on bail, particularly young people.

He said: 'In most courts, in particular youth courts, there is no information for the public about how many people have been sentenced to what.

'They read about lots of crime, but very rarely about sentencing, except in the most extreme cases. Therefore the general view is that nothing happens to criminals and therefore they walk away.'