London - The British justice minister said on Tuesday that the riots which swept across England last month were the result of a “broken penal system”.
Kenneth Clarke said the system has failed to rehabilitate a group of hardcore offenders he described as the “criminal classes”.
In an article in the Guardian newspaper he said the civil unrest had laid bare an urgent need for penal reform to stop reoffending among “a feral underclass, cut off from the mainstream in everything but its materialism”.
“It's not yet been widely recognised, but the hardcore of the rioters were in fact known criminals. Close to three quarters of those aged 18 or over charged with riot offences already had a prior conviction,” he said.
“That is the legacy of a broken penal system - one whose record in preventing reoffending has been straightforwardly dreadful.”
Clarke dismissed criticism of the severity of sentences handed down to rioters and said judges had been “getting it about right,” but added that punishment alone was “not enough”. - Reuters