Victims must not suffer consequences of prison crisis, warns Domestic Abuse Commissioner
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner has written to the Prime Minister calling for urgent action to address the prison capacity crisis.
Nicole Jacobs is urging Government to act now or risk failing in its ambitious pledge to halve violence against women and girls over a decade.
The warning follows new analysis from the Commissioner, revealing that if just one in three domestic abuse victims reported to the police, it could result in up to 10,000 additional convictions, even if conviction rates remain low.
Halving violence against women and girls should rightly enable more domestic abuse victims to come forward, says Ms Jacobs.
“But with prisons set to overflow and a probation service on its knees, the criminal justice system must be equipped to cope with additional convictions, otherwise victims will pay the price,” she added.
Figures show currently just one in five victims of domestic abuse report to the police and, of police-recorded crime, just five per cent achieve a conviction.
If convictions rise, as they should, this will only add more pressure to the system, says Ms Jacobs.
As it stands, prisons are about to reach maximum capacity and probation is struggling to manage the risk of domestic abuse perpetrators in the community, she warned.
With the new Government considering a range of options to alleviate the crisis, the Commissioner wants the safety of domestic abuse victims to be paramount.
Government must get to grips with the basics before this crisis escalates any further, says the Commissioner, and dangerous domestic abuse perpetrators must not be released into the community early.
The Commissioner says that this exclusion must include all known perpetrators – whether their conviction is for a domestic abuse-related offence or not. Also included in the letter are calls to consider making domestic abuse a statutory mitigating factor for victims who offend.
Ms Jacobs said: “As we expand efforts to build faith in the criminal justice system and improve outcomes for victims, convictions will, and should, only increase. Our prisons must be prepared to manage this.
“I accept that difficult choices must be made, but we must question the purpose of our criminal justice system if victims are forced to deal with the consequences of systemic failings.
“Domestic abuse victims deserve justice. I look forward to working with the Government to achieve this.”