‘TOUGH on the causes of crime’ should be more than just a sound bite, it should be the focus for any government seeking to reduce the pressure on our criminal justice system and make people feel safer and more secure day to day.

However, I believe the Green Party’s approach is the most credible and will make a long-term difference.

People commit crime for many reasons but generally individual circumstances are key. While we do not excuse anyone who commits crime, it is likely that a society that is more equal, where people are paid properly for work and are under less financial hardship and more content, will have less crime.

Locking up offenders is costly and ineffective. We should use prison for only the most serious offences, and make greater use of alternatives.

However, the aim of prison should be to reduce reoffending rather than just to remove people from society and fulfil our view of ‘punishment’.

Currently young offenders may be locked up in prison for 23 hours a day doing nothing. A high proportion can’t read or write and many have extremely poor educational achievement.

The UK is soon to pilot an American model where facilities are more like secure schools, learning is key and the focus is on lifting young offenders from a life of crime and steering them to a better future.

The cost savings we can make in a prison service less burdened by non-serious crime and with less reoffending can instead be used to stop the erosion of police frontline services and to develop stronger responses to new threats of cyber crime and the blight of child abuse.

Also victims must have a better experience of the justice system and our local police need to have the resources to tackle crime swiftly and sensitively.