Church demands: “Keyboard warriors” who incited riots and racial hatred should not be put in prison

Her comments follow the introduction of emergency measures last week to combat prison overcrowding. In some parts of the country, defendants awaiting court dates are being held in police cells until prison spaces become available.

She said she was “extremely concerned” about the “narrative” that the streets would be safer if more people were locked up for longer.

“There is no evidence that locking up more people for longer makes our streets safer. In fact, our recidivism rates are extremely high,” she said.

“And if we want to create communities that are good for victims of crime, for offenders, for families and for the wider community, we have to ask ourselves the long-term question: What do we believe, what do we do and what are prisons for?”

Community punishment

Instead, she supported community orders, where offenders are not imprisoned but supervised by probation officers, stressing that this is not “soft justice”.

Last year, the Conservative government announced that criminals such as thieves and shoplifters, who face short prison sentences, would be spared prison as part of measures to tackle the overcrowding crisis.

The bishop called for “more appropriate community punishment” rather than “sending people to prison where, quite frankly, they learn more about crime but do not experience the rehabilitation that people imagine.”

In another comment to the Church Times, the Reverend Treweek said that criminals “need to be separated from the public if they are truly dangerous”, but added that some crimes do not warrant a prison sentence.

She said: “I don't know all the details about the people who have been sent to prison, but why don't we make much more use of electronic monitoring and not impose social punishments that respond to anger or certain political views?”

Sentence “far exaggerated”

Julie Sweeney, from Cheshire, was jailed earlier this month after responding to a post showing white and Asian people taking part in the clean-up following the Southport riots in late July. She said: “This is absolutely ridiculous. Don't protect the mosques. Blow up the mosques with the adults inside.”

Judge Steven Everett sentenced the 53-year-old, who was her husband's primary carer, to 15 months in prison for sending a message threatening death or serious bodily harm. He said: “So-called keyboard warriors like you must learn to take responsibility for your disgusting and inflammatory language.”