PRISON does not increase public safety according to a campaign launched today.
The SmartJustice campaign, launched by Mayor of Middlesbrough Ray Mallon, calls for more community solutions to crime and is opening its first regional office in the North-East.
The prison population has risen by 11 per cent in the North-East since 2000, and according to the group, eight out of ten shoplifters and car thieves are reconvicted within two years of leaving jail.
The former detective superintendent said: "The best way to cut offending in the long- term is to divert children away from the first rung of the crime ladder.
"Instead of spending millions in the future keeping criminals in jails and repairing the damage to society, we should be spending thousands now diverting children from crime."
The launch will also highlight projects such as the South Tyneside Youth Offending Service, which has cut youth crime by ten per cent in one year.
Campaign officer in the North-East Helen Attewell said: "We need more effective programmes that punish offenders in the community, get them to change their behaviour and pay back to the community for the wrong they have done."
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