MENSTON and Burley-in-Wharfedale MP Philip Davies has blasted planned reforms of the prison system.

He spoke out after Prime Minister David Cameron outlined his vision, which could include not jailing pregnant women and allowing prisoners to work outside jail five days a week.

Mr Cameron highlighted figures showing 46 per cent of all prisoners reoffend within a year of release, rising to 60 per cent for those who served short sentences.

The Prime Minister has already announced plans to find alternatives to custody for pregnant women or new mothers and confirmed that a pilot scheme to track offenders by satellite will launch later this year.

Mr Davies said: "Prisoners already only serve a maximum of half their sentence in jail. To suggest that they then only spend the weekend in prison is frankly stupid, would cheat the victims and put people unnecessarily at more risk of being a victim of crime.

"Instead of hare-brained schemes like this, the Government should be ensuring that prisoners serve the full sentence handed down by the courts."