No pubs for criminals? U.K. seeks prison alternatives amid overcrowding.

LONDON - Faced with a prison overcrowding issue, the U.K. government plans to allow judges to hand down alternative punishments for some convicted criminals: bans from going to the pub and attending soccer matches, two quintessential activities in British culture.

Britain’s Justice Ministry said Sunday that judges in England and Wales will be able to hand down these types of “community punishments” more broadly as part of new sentencing powers, which it expects will pass into law once Parliament returns from summer recess in September.

The “community punishments” would ban criminals from sporting events, concerts and pubs - traditionally important cultural gathering spaces for many Britons - and include limits on certain offenders’ ability to drive and travel, as well as “restriction zones confining them into specific areas,” the government said. They are designed to be an alternative to incarceration and a deterrent for potential reoffenders, it added.

“When criminals break society’s rules, they must be punished,” Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said in a statement. “Those serving their sentences in the community must have their freedom restricted there too.”

Details of the new sentencing powers have not yet been announced and it remains unclear how the new rules would be enforced. The Justice Ministry said in a statement that probation officers would be able to set these restrictions as conditions for people who are released from prison under a type of supervision known as a “license,” and that the government would provide more detail down the line.

The changes are part of a wider plan to reform Britain’s prison system as it faces a “capacity crisis,” which the government said in June was fueling violence among prisoners. Around 86,000 people are in prison in England and Wales, a number close to the maximum capacity of the country’s prison system, according to U.K. government data. An independent review published in May recommended a reform of Britain’s sentencing laws and the government has announced plans to propose new legislation.

Judges in England and Wales can already impose limited bans for specific crimes - for instance, by banning someone convicted of soccer hooliganism from attending a match at home or abroad, the government said. These are known as Football Banning Orders, which uses the British term for the sport.

But the new powers would allow judges to apply those bans “as a form of punishment for any offence in any circumstance,” it said. People who were in prison for a crime and who are released on probation “will also face similar restrictions,” as well as expanded drug testing, it said.

Nicholas Hardwick, a former U.K. chief inspector of prisons, said the expanded “community punishments” can be a “sensible” alternative to prison “for people who haven’t committed a very serious offense but nevertheless need to be punished for what they’ve done.” Hardwick cited people convicted of theft, damage to property or motoring offenses as examples of those he believes might qualify.

“Even were prisons not overcrowded, I think this would be a better way of dealing with some offenses than the expense of locking people up. But as it is, prisons are so overcrowded, they’re barely able to function, so there’s a kind of practical need to do this,” said Hardwick, who is now emeritus professor of criminal justice at Royal Holloway University near London.

But Matthew Scott, a lawyer at Pump Court Chambers who specializes in criminal law, said bans on attending football matches or pubs might not deter people who have not been convicted of relevant crimes from reoffending, and would be expensive to enforce.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to be deterred from committing a crime because of the thought that they might be banned from … football matches” Scott said. “As a sort of general punishment, it just seems a bit ridiculous really.”

Scott said Britain’s Probation Service, whose officers would take on the burden for ensuring that the bans are respected and taking offenders back to court or prison, is “horrendously overworked as it is on the existing order.”

The government said in its news release that it will invest up to 700 million pounds ($950 million) more in the Probation Service by 2029, up from an annual budget of about 1.6 billion pounds ($2.2 billion), and said it has already begun to recruit more officers.

Mahmood, the justice secretary, wrote in an editorial published in the Mirror newspaper that the new punishments were designed to ensure that offenders who are not incarcerated are still punished.

“Take football, as the new season starts. For many fans, their time on the terraces is the highlight of their week,” she wrote. “But crooks who cause chaos on our streets could soon be banned from stadiums - stranded at home while their mates cheer from the stands.”

Hardwick said the “community punishments” are probably also intended as a signal to society that people who break the law are restricted from places that are important to British culture.

Hardwick said jailing people who commit minor offenses is “as likely to make them worse as it is to make them better” and is expensive. He argued that punishments for such offenses should be seen as “a proper penalty but not one that is disproportionate.”

“It’s about showing that there are consequences for what you do,” he said. “But it’s also important that it’s rehabilitative as well.”