Mr Clarke says early guilty pleas save victims from having to relive their ordeals Controversial plans to reform sentencing in England and Wales may be shelved by the government.
Prime Minister David Cameron met the Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, for more than half-an-hour on Tuesday to discuss the sentencing proposals.
They include halving the prison term for those who plead guilty early, up from the present reduction of a third.
The proposals are aimed at cutting the 85,000 inmate population and reducing the £4bn prison and probation budget.
BBC political correspondent Gary O’Donoghue said the government was due to publish firm plans on sentencing shortly, but this rethink was likely to delay the process for some time.
He said halving sentences for those criminals who pleaded guilty at the earliest possible opportunity had provoked concern on the Conservative backbenches and that idea might be shelved.
“But Whitehall sources have told the BBC that nothing is settled and if Downing Street insists on scrapping the sentencing reforms, then ministers would have to find another way of plugging a £130m hole in the Ministry of Justice budget,” he added.
The plan to halve sentences for some criminals who plead guilty early has been criticised by top judges and the Victims Commissioner, Louise Casey.
Last month, Mr Clarke got into trouble after he appeared to suggest that some rapes were less serious than others during an interview about the reductions.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live’s Victoria Derbyshire, he talked about “serious rape with violence and an unwilling woman”, but the justice secretary later clarified his comments by saying that “all rape is a serious crime”.
The whole package of proposals was outlined by the justice secretary last year in a Green Paper on sentencing in England and Wales.
Launching the paper, Mr Clarke said the present criminal justice system “falls short of what is required” – with around half of those released from prison going on to reoffend within a year.
He has set a target of cutting the number of inmates in English and Welsh jails by 3,000 from its current 85,000 level, reducing the budget by 20% over four years.
Other plans to reduce prison numbers include allowing some foreign criminals to leave Britain for good instead of going to prison and to give judges more discretion over sentencing in murder cases – although there is no intention to scrap the mandatory life sentences.
It also promises more help to deal with inmates’ drug and alcohol addiction problems and mental illness, and a toughening up of community sentences.
At the time of its launch, Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust, said it was a “blueprint for moderate and sensible reform and should mark the end of sterile debate on toughness or softness on crime”.
Meanwhile, a report by the Howard League for Penal Reform and the Prison Governors’ Association has found “the potential deterrent effect of serving a short prison sentence is lost” on repeat offenders.
“Those serving their first prison sentence were unanimous that this was their first and last prison sentence,” the report said.
“Those who had served several prison sentences were unanimous that this prison sentence had not been a shock. Many also indicated that they would rather serve a short prison sentence than complete a community order.”
Interviews with 44 prisoners in three jails holding criminals serving less than 12 months showed many repeat offenders felt community sentences could “drag”.
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