DO short-term custodial sentences really work? Evidence suggests they do not.

Ministry of Justice figures for 2010- 11 show that nearly 60 per cent of prisoners who served less than 12 months were found guilty of a new crime within a year. Depressingly, the reoffending rate is even higher for North-East prisons.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling plans to give everyone who serves a prison sentence a 12-month supervision order. The idea is that by keeping tabs on recently-released felons, they can be encouraged to keep going straight.

Prisoners will also be required to undergo compulsory drugs tests and will have to comply with new support services on employment, alcohol and drugs rehabilitation.

Mr Grayling is also planning to hand probationary supervision of low-risk offenders to private companies, such as G4S, on a payment-byresults basis.

The Government calls this a “rehabilitation revolution”.

We agree that rehabilitation upon release is a good thing, but if the Government really wants a revolution, it would have ordered a re-examination of custodial sentencing.

Sending petty criminals to prison does not work.

Community-based schemes, which force offenders to give something back, are cheaper and more effective.

Rehabilitation does not mean being soft on crime.

It means helping petty criminals to change their ways and become productive members of society.