Rough justice

The benefits did not end here. It prevent the cash-hit courts and prisons from being clogged up while offering offenders a chance to mend their ways without incurring a criminal record which could preclude them from obtaining employment because of one indiscretion.

Such punishments were never intended for those who commit acts of gratuitous violence. And while it might just have been acceptable for 128 incidents across this region’s four forces to be resolved in this way in 2009, it is a matter of grave concern that this figure rose to an astonishing 3,421 cases last year.

As such, Yvette Cooper – the Shadow Home Secretary and prominent West Yorkshire MP – is right to highlight the 10,000 instances nationally where violent offenders undertook restorative justice without even receiving a caution from the police that would remain on their record, and be taken into account, if they reoffended at a later date.

These are criminals who should be undertaking their rehabilitation in prison – and who should not be released back into society until they have come to terms with any drugs or alcohol conviction, and agreed a clear plan with the Probation Service on their reintegration into civilised society.

Yet, if Ms Cooper is advocating more criminals being sent to prison, she cannot have it both ways. She needs to explain how a future Labour government under Ed Miliband would fund this – and whether it would reverse many of the cuts that have been introduced by the current coalition.