Charles Kennedy has unveiled new Liberal Democrat plans for the punishment of non-violent offenders.

Speaking in Leicester where he was visiting a local police station, Kennedy called for revised community sentences that give courts a "tougher, more challenging" alternative to prison.

The plans would see low-level offenders carrying out "intensive and useful work" that would be identified by local people.

Criminals would be tracked by the latest tagging and tracking technology, serving what the party described as "high-tech, high supervision, high visibility sentences".

The Lib Dems believe this form of community "payback" would be much more beneficial than locking up offenders who have shown no propensity towards violence.

Kennedy said that when someone committed a crime it was only right that "they repay their victims and make amends".

"For many criminals prison is an occupational hazard. It is the soft option that locks them up for a few months in all-expenses paid accommodation with three meals a day, a gym, pool table and a TV," he said.

"It is time to change that. Rather than taxpayers forking out thousands of pounds to keep a non-violent offender in prison for a few weeks, it is time to get something back. Victims of crime and the communities they live in are entitled to repayment for the crimes they have suffered.

"The community sentence, seen by successive home secretaries as the poor relation to prison, has the potential to transform our criminal justice system - but only if it is reformed, rejuvenated and re-ignited as a political priority."