Two police and crime commissioners have warned that the criminal justice system is at risk due to underfunding.
Hampshire's PCC Donna Jones and Matthew Barber, from Thames Valley, are urging the government to take "bold, system-wide action" in its spending review on Wednesday.
They believe the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for courts, prisons, probation, and victim services, is underfunded, putting public safety in jeopardy.
Despite recent increases, the Ministry of Justice remains one of the worst-hit departments.
Forecasts by the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggest that day-to-day spending on justice in 2025–26 will be 24 per cent lower per person than in 2007–08.
As of September 2024, 73,105 court cases were awaiting trial, nearly double the backlog in 2019.
The government's early release scheme saw 16,231 prisoners released early in 2024 to ease overcrowding.
Victim support services, police offender management teams, and rehabilitation services are all under pressure, with resources stretched thin.
The commissioners argue the current state of the criminal justice system leaves victims "in limbo," with some "denied justice altogether."
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They argue that while recent policing funding uplifts have been given to support recruitment and crime reduction, these measures alone are not enough to ensure community safety or rebuild public confidence in the justice system.
They said: "The system is buckling. Policing is just one agency.
"We cannot continue to starve the criminal justice system of resources and expect the public to have confidence in it.
"Justice doesn’t end when an offender is arrested.
"It ends when a victim sees a resolution, and when rehabilitation or punishment has been delivered properly.
"Releasing thousands of prisoners early and proposing lighter sentences in the community may relieve pressure, but only if community supervision, rehabilitation services, and offender management teams are properly funded.
"If not, we are simply pushing risk into the public domain and onto overstretched police, probation, and support services.
"We cannot continue to treat justice as a patchwork of agencies. It’s a single, interdependent system.
"When one part breaks down, it affects every other part – and most importantly, it fails the public we all serve."
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