I am writing on behalf of the Crush Crime campaign to express urgent concerns about the failure to address the epidemic of crime caused by career criminals in this country. A tiny number of career criminals are responsible for an extraordinary proportion of crime, yet sentencing practices and prison capacity are failing to deliver justice or protect the public.

The statistics are shocking:

• 1 in 10 offenders commit at least 16 offences and are responsible for half of all crimes.
• Phone thefts have increased 150%; with 78,000 cases of phone or bag thefts in 2023. Robbery has increased by nearly 10%.
• Over 200,000 offenders avoided jail despite having 25 or more convictions, and 2,000 avoided jail despite having over 100 convictions.

Failure to imprison these individuals has devastating consequences - with some sentences insultingly lenient, including offenders receiving as little as four years for rape despite having over 100 previous offences.

Evidence demonstrates that targeting career criminals brings rapid, significant reductions in crime:

• Arresting seven members of a bike theft gang in the City of London reduced bike thefts by 90%.
• Focused police efforts on career criminals in Hemel Hempstead reduced crime reports by 72%.
• Arresting seven prolific burglars in Barnsley led to a 64% drop in home burglaries in Goldthorpe.

The solution is clear: more crimes must mean more time. Sentencing must reflect the scale of harm caused by career criminals, and prison spaces must be optimised to ensure prolific offenders are taken off the streets.

As your constituent, I ask for you to publicly support the Crush Crime campaign demands for government to:

1. Amend sentencing guidelines to make clear the more offences a criminal commits, the longer they should stay in prison. 
2. Legislative change. Government must ensure that each subsequent offence results in a proportionally longer sentence. Judges shall be permitted discretion but the direction of judgements must be made clear: repeat offences increase the time to be served, and the more serious a pattern of behaviour - or the more widespread - the more sentences must compound. More crimes must mean more time.
3. Commit to a comprehensive prison-building programme to address capacity constraints and ensure the system can deliver justice effectively.

Career criminals are driving up crime, terrorising communities, and avoiding the full consequences of their actions. Failing to act not only lets down victims but emboldens repeat offenders to reoffend with impunity.

Yours sincerely,

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