LOCKING up increasing numbers of criminals for longer and longer periods is helping neither society nor the prisoner, according to the Archbishop of York.

Dr John Sentamu was speaking during his Prisoners Education Trust annual lecture on prison reform, restorative justice and community.

He said: “We should be pained and troubled by the size of our prison population in Britain, the sheer number of individuals who have given up on community – and feel that community has given up on them. “We need to show love and compassion while ensuring justice is served and seen to be served.

“Putting more and more people away behind locked doors, for longer and longer sentences, does not help society. Neither does it help the individual.

“What we need is to educate people about how they can be better citizens – not encouraging people to turn their back on society, as some sort of perceived underclass.”

In his lecture, entitled “Human Responsibilities, Independent of Circumstances”, Dr Sentamu said young people should be taught to value themselves and act responsibly towards other people.

He said: “In modern culture, the rights of the individual are now paramount – but you cannot have these rights without obligations and responsibilities. “We need to get back to valuing ourselves and our neighbours – and understanding that there is a cost involved when a crime is committed.

“A cost to the criminal, a cost to the victim and a cost to the community.”

Dr Sentamu also highlighted the growth of the Street Pastor movement, where volunteers from churches are trained before going out at night to some of the trouble hot spots in cities to be “a presence for peace”.