The government has announced plans for thousands of prisoners to be released early
The temporarily plans are to reduce the length of certain sentences served in prison from 50% to 40%, with “important safeguards and exemptions to keep the public safe”
Violent and sexual offenders will be exempt from the scheme
“If we fail to act now, we face the collapse of the criminal justice system. And a total breakdown of law and order” said the new Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmoodannouncing the measures at HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire
She added that without the measures overflow police cells would be filled, leading to “van-loads of dangerous people circling the country with nowhere to go”.
Mahmood said 10,000 prisoners had been released since October 2023 under a previous emergency scheme which she would scrap to allow for a more systematic early release programme.
Mahmood branded Rishi Sunak and “his gang in Number Ten” as “guilty men” for failing to get a grip on the crisis in prisons
She said she was left with no choice but to announce plans to release thousands of prisoners early due to overcrowding
Responding to the measures Andrew Neilson, Director of Campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said:
“This is absolutely the right decision by the Lord Chancellor and the only way to buy a new government time to think more deeply and seriously about the use of prison and the functioning of the wider criminal justice system. We also welcome a commitment to investment in the probation service, which is the ultimate guarantor of public safety.
“This is not simply an emergency to do with capacity, although that is driving the immediate need for action. Our violent and overcrowded prisons are holding the country back by failing to tackle the underlying causes of crime. If anything, they make reoffending far more likely.
“The first step must be to stabilise the system. As the Howard League outlined in its own recommendations earlier this week, bringing forward the point of automatic early release for those on standard determinate sentences will both free up space and allow prisons and probation the chance to properly plan the resettlement of people in prison. The previous government’s early release scheme was chaotic and ultimately insufficient to address the capacity crisis behind bars.
“The Ministry of Justice will need to go further in due course, as the billions earmarked for building new prisons will still not be enough to stop an untenable surge in the population over the coming years. That means, as the Prime Minister said in his press conference last weekend, that we ‘do need to be clear about the way in which we use prisons.’ We can also be clear that there is a better way.”
