The Criminal Justice System is too easy on its offenders - an accusation that has been publicly battled for several years and carries on today.

Offenders are often given a sentence but then released after only serving half, only to go back out into the world to re-offend. This worrying cycle is ongoing and will continue until something is done.

There have been many reasons and ideas speculated as to why this is. Firstly, the prisons are overcrowded. There simply isn’t enough space to house the rising amount of young offenders let alone the criminals that are already incarcerated.

During this financially difficult time for the UK the cost of keeping people in prison has also made a noticeable threat to the economy as they obviously don’t pay for their own clothes, food or other necessities.

Finally, some offences are simply just found not to be worthy of a prison sentence which, quite candidly, is not good enough. In a recent poll over 50% of the population agree that the CJS is too soft on its offenders and that more serious actions should be considered in order for these criminals to be properly treated like one.

These are just some of the reasons as to why people are being “kindly sentenced” or avoiding prison completely. These factors result in things such as early release, increase in community service orders, drug rehabilitation orders and clinical treatment for psychiatric patients instead of prison.

Going to prison or being sentenced to such weak punishment is a throw-away-thought for a lot of offenders as they’ll find that serving 6-12 months in prison or in a rehab unit to be quite brash and overall “not as bad as they expected.” With this kind of attitude no wonder there is a rise in crime! Ranging from different offences such as drink driving to GBH (grievous bodily harm) to even murder, over half of Britons agree that they’re simply not getting the punishment they deserve.

The criminal justice system must change.