Short jail terms of under a year should be scrapped, prison governors have said today.

The Prison Governors’ Association (PGA) will propose at their annual conference later that the prison system is heading for a new crisis, and short-term sentences should be scrapped because they contribute to overcrowding and do not reform criminals.

Some 65,000 out of 100,348 prisoners sentenced in 2008 were given sentences of 12 months or under, therefore the move proposed by the PGA could slash prison numbers by two thirds.

The motion by the PGA concludes: "This association therefore calls on the government to radically review sentencing policy with a view to abolishing immediate custodial sentences of less than 12 months."

The justice secretary, Jack Straw, has frequently argued for increased use of community sentences as an alternative to short prison terms.

Paul Tidball, president of the PGA, says more spending on fewer prisoners would be more effective in tackling serious offender behaviour.

He said: "We really can’t afford, literally, to be locking people up unnecessarily, ineffectually and so pointlessly."

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