Editing Michael Howard (section)

===Home Secretary===
As Home Secretary he pursued a tough approach to crime, summed up in his sound bite, "prison works". During his tenure as Home Secretary, recorded crime fell by 16.8%.<ref>Channel 4 News, [https://web.archive.org/web/20121024050729/http://www.channel4.com/fc/quote.jsp?id=23 FactCheck: Spoof Howard Cv needs policing]</ref> In 2010 Howard claimed a 45% decrease in crime since a 1993 study by Home Office criminologist Roger Tarling proved that prison worked though the prison population rose from 42,000 to nearly 85,000.  Ken Clarke disagreed, pointing to a 60% recidivism rate amongst newly released prisoners and hinting that factors such as better household and vehicle security and better policing could be influencing crime rates, not just the incapacitation effect of removing offenders to prison.<ref name=alan>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/dec/07/michael-howard-prison-works-analysis|title=Howard is right: 'prison works' – but this is no way to cut crime|author=Alan Travis|work=The Guardian|date=7 December 2010|access-date=29 April 2015|archive-date=9 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150709183410/http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/dec/07/michael-howard-prison-works-analysis|url-status=live}}</ref>

Howard repeatedly clashed with judges and prison reformers as he sought to clamp down on crime through a series of 'tough' measures, such as reducing the [[right to silence]] of defendants in their police interviews and at their trials as part of 1994's [[Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994|Criminal Justice and Public Order Act]]. Howard voted for the reintroduction of the [[death penalty]] for the killing of police officers on duty and for murders carried out with firearms in 1983 and 1990.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1990/dec/17/death-penalty-for-murder | title=DEATH PENALTY FOR MURDER (Hansard, 17 December 1990) | access-date=23 February 2019 | archive-date=24 February 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190224001744/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1990/dec/17/death-penalty-for-murder | url-status=live }}</ref> In 1993, he changed his mind and became opposed to the reintroduction of the death penalty and voted against it again in February 1994.

In 1993, following the [[murder of James Bulger]], two eleven-year-old boys were convicted of his murder and sentenced to be detained [[at Her Majesty's pleasure]], with a recommended a minimum term of eight years. [[Lord Taylor of Gosforth]], the [[Lord Chief Justice]], ordered that the two boys should serve a minimum of ten years.<ref name=odnb >{{cite ODNB|last= Davenport-Hines |first= Richard |title=Bulger, James Patrick (1990–1993), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography| url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/76074|year=2004 |access-date=2 October 2009 |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/76074 }} (''Subscription Required'')</ref> The editors of ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]'' newspaper handed a petition bearing nearly 280,000 signatures to Howard, in a bid to increase the time spent by both boys in custody.<ref name="Guardian03Mar2010">{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/mar/03/james-bulger-case-venables-thompson |title=James Bulger killing: the case history of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson |date=3 March 2010 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130709061058/http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/03/james-bulger-case-venables-thompson |archive-date=9 July 2013 }} ''The Guardian'' (London) 3 March 2010.</ref> This campaign was successful, and the boys were kept in custody for a minimum of fifteen years,<ref name=Guardian03Mar2010 /><ref name="BBC3008191">{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3008191.stm |title=New sentencing rules: Key cases |date=7 May 2003 |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=11 March 2010|archive-date=30 July 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040730061644/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3008191.stm |url-status=live}}</ref> meaning that they would not be considered for release until February 2008, by which time they would be 25 years of age.<ref name=odnb />

A former [[Master of the Rolls]], [[John Donaldson, Baron Donaldson of Lymington|Lord Donaldson]], criticised Howard's intervention, describing the increased tariff as "institutionalised vengeance ... [by] a politician playing to the gallery".<ref name=odnb /> The increased minimum term was overturned in 1997 by the [[House of Lords]], which ruled it was substantively ''[[ultra vires]]'', and therefore "unlawful", for the Home Secretary to decide on minimum sentences for young offenders.<ref name=bbc_outrage>{{Cite news|title=Outrage at call for Bulger killers' release|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/492487.stm|publisher=BBC|date=28 October 1999|access-date=12 July 2012|archive-date=22 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222181631/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/492487.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[High Court of Justice|High Court]] and [[European Court of Human Rights]] have since ruled that, though Parliament may set minimum and maximum terms for individual categories of crime, it is the responsibility of the trial judge, with the benefit of all the evidence and argument from both prosecution and defence counsel, to determine the minimum term in individual criminal cases.<ref name=BBC3008191 />

====Controversies====
Howard's reputation was damaged on 13 May 1997 when a critical inquiry into a series of prison escapes was published. Howard denied responsibility for the [[Prison Service]]'s operations and laid the blame with Director General [[Derek Lewis (administrator)|Derek Lewis]], who was sacked.<ref>{{cite news|last=Mills|first=Heather|date=20 October 1995|title=Prison drama ends in political farce|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/prison-drama-ends-in-political-farce-1578591.html|work=The Independent|access-date=7 July 2024}}</ref> Lewis sued the Home Office for [[wrongful dismissal]] and alleged that Howard had regularly interfered with the service's operations, citing an instance in which Howard put "extreme and unjustified pressure" on him to suspend the governor of [[Parkhurst Prison]] (threatening to overrule him if he did not).<ref>{{cite news|last1=Webster|first1=Philip|last2=Ford|first2=Richard|date=19 October 1995|title=Howard ready to come out fighting as Lewis sues|url=
https://archive.org/details/NewsUK1995UKEnglish/Oct%2019%201995%2C%20The%20Times%2C%20%2365402%2C%20UK%20%28en%29|work=[[The Times]]|access-date=7 July 2024}}</ref> In a television interview on ''[[Newsnight]],'' [[Jeremy Paxman]] asked Howard whether he had in fact threatened to overrule Lewis, posing the question "Did you threaten to overrule him?" twelve times. Howard repeatedly said that he "did not instruct him", ignoring the "threaten" part of the question.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/3094255.stm |title=Newsnight – Jeremy Paxman biography |work=BBC News |date=10 October 2006 |access-date=17 April 2010 |archive-date=12 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090912033415/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/3094255.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> Paxman asked him again in another interview in 2004. Howard responded: "Oh come on, Jeremy, are you really going back over that again? As it happens, I didn't. Are you satisfied now?" Secret Home Office papers partially vindicated Howard, but show that Howard asked a top civil servant if he had the power to overrule Lewis.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/mar/02/ukcrime.freedomofinformation |title=Secret Home Office papers on prison row fail to clear Howard |date=2 March 2005 |first=Alan |last=Travis |location=London |work=The Guardian |access-date=15 December 2016 |archive-date=4 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404045801/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/mar/02/ukcrime.freedomofinformation |url-status=live }}</ref>

Shortly after the 1997 ''Newsnight'' interview, [[Ann Widdecombe]], his former minister of state at the Home Office, made a statement in the House of Commons about the dismissal of Derek Lewis and remarked of Howard that there is "[[something of the night about him]]".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Sengupta|first1=Kim|last2=Abrams|first2=Fran|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/widdecombe-goes-for-the-jugular-1261224.html?amp|title=Widdecombe goes for the jugular|work=The Independent|date=12 May 1997|access-date=3 April 2017|archive-date=3 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403194601/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/widdecombe-goes-for-the-jugular-1261224.html?amp|url-status=live}}</ref> This much quoted comment is thought to have contributed to the failure of his 1997 bid for the Conservative Party leadership, including by Howard and Widdecombe and led to him being caricatured as a vampire, in part due to his Romanian ancestry.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8435904.stm|title=Ann Widdecombe 'tested out' Howard quip|work=BBC News|date=31 December 2009|access-date=3 April 2017|archive-date=8 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108112244/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8435904.stm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Crick|first=Michael|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/mission-accomplished-how-howard-was-knifed-757lktbmgdt|title='Mission accomplished': how Howard was knifed|work=[[The Times]]|date=30 March 2005|access-date=3 April 2017|archive-date=6 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170906134657/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mission-accomplished-how-howard-was-knifed-757lktbmgdt|url-status=live}}{{subscription required}} Extract from Crick's book ''In search of Michael Howard''.</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Holland|first1=David|title=Interview with a Vampire|url=http://thetab.com/uk/cambridge/2011/05/03/interview-with-a-vampire-2630|work=The Tab|date=3 May 2011|access-date=4 January 2017|archive-date=4 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170104163735/http://thetab.com/uk/cambridge/2011/05/03/interview-with-a-vampire-2630|url-status=live}}</ref> Such characterisations caused discontent among some members of Britain's Jewish community.

In 1996 Howard, as Home Secretary, ordered the release of [[John Haase (criminal)|John Haase]] and Paul Bennett with [[Pardon#United Kingdom|royal pardons]] after 10 months of their 18-year prison sentences for heroin smuggling, after they had provided information leading to the seizure of firearms. In 2008 Haase and Bennett were convicted of having set up the weapons finds to earn them their release, and sentenced to 20 and 22 years in prison respectively.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Summers |first1=Chris |title=How a home secretary was hoodwinked |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7671946.stm |access-date=19 November 2008 |work=BBC News |archive-date=17 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417051159/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7671946.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>