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The justice secretary has unveiled new plans to tackle the overcrowding crisis that has engulfed jails across the country.
In a speech at HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire, Shabana Mahmood said failing to ease pressure on prisons could cause a “total breakdown of law and order”.
Thousands of prisoners are to be released earlier than planned as the government attempts to avert the “collapse” of the prisons system.
The plans would see a temporary reduction in the proportion of their sentence many prisoners must serve in jail from 50 per cent to 44 per cent.
This would not apply to violent offenders serving more than four years, sex offenders or those in prison for crimes connected to domestic abuse.
The change is expected to come into force in September, with the Justice Secretary also announcing the recruitment of 1,000 additional trainee probation officers by March.
Ms Mahmood added there was now “only one way to avert disaster”, adding that the measures would “give us the time we need to address the prisons crisis”.
It comes as Nigel Farage is set to return to GB News next week after being elected as an MP on his eighth attempt, the channel has confirmed.
Ofcom repeatedly found that the broadcaster breached rules on impartiality, which allow politicians to present current affairs programmes but not act as newsreaders.
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The early release of prisoners will include inmates convicted of assault and “relatively serious violent offences,” the head of the Prison Governors Association warned, but he said it was the best possible option.
The Government has said no one serving a sentence of more than four years for violent offences will be released early, but Tom Wheatley said ones serving shorter sentences would be freed at the 40% mark rather than 50%.
Asked whether the early release was the best possible option, he told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme: “Yes, it’s the best we can do now.
“Had the previous government acted earlier, we might have been able to do something different.”
Asked which violent prisoners could be released early, Mr Wheatley said: “There will be offences of assault, there will be relatively serious violent offences, and it will include those people.
“The fact is though, those people are going to get out of prison, and whether they get out at the 40% point or 50% point, we stand a reasonable chance of them making a success of their release and not going on to commit further offences.”
Tory MP blasts own party and reveals biggest downfall in Question Time rant
A Tory MP received a round of applause after hitting out at his own party, saying they deserved to lose the general election. George Freeman, who was a senior minister in Rishi Sunak’s government, slammed the Tories and accused his team of “taking voters for granted”, during a passionate Question Time speech on Thursday (11 July). Mr Freeman said: “I think there were a lot of good policies but the conduct of many of my colleagues in office and my party in office, we’ve looked as though power is ours by divine right, a crown to be played with while people are suffering and we’ve been thrown out unceremoniously for it.”
Prisoners to serve shorter sentences until 2026 to avert ‘total breakdown of law and order’
Emergency plans to cut prisoner sentence lengths to ease the overcrowding crisis and avert “a total breakdown in law and order” will last until 2026 at least, the justice secretary has announced.
In a furious speech at HMP Five Wells, Shabana Mahmood lambasted the decision by Rishi Sunak’s government to delay the new measures announced by Labour on Friday to release thousands of prisoners 40 per cent of the way into their sentences – as opposed to halfway through – until after the election.
And it was also revealed that the emergency early release scheme brought in by the previous government in October had seen 10,000 inmates freed early, but had barely put a dent in the soaring prison population.
Inspector of prisons: Decision to address prisons crisis ‘needed to be taken’
A decision to address the prisons crisis “needed to be taken and none would have been without risk”, chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said.
“This is a critical point for prisons, with barely any places left and the effects of existing measures such as ECSL (End of Custody Supervised Licence) being exhausted,” he said in a statement.
“While we therefore welcome recognition of the seriousness of the situation, and swift action to manage the prison populations to relieve the immediate strain many jails are under, this latest measure will inevitably lead to the early release of some risky offenders, and will add to the workload of already stretched prison OMUs and probation services.
“How these men are prepared for release and how prisons and probation are supported in managing them will be vital.
“We will be watching this very closely as well as any plans that are developed once the immediate pressure is relieved that seek to make prisons places of genuine purpose, help people to break the cycle of reoffending and protect the public from future harm.”
Starmer says ‘Britain belongs on world stage’ at end of first summit as PM
Sir Keir Starmer declared the UK was back playing a leading role on the world stage at the conclusion of his first international summit as Prime Minister.
Sir Keir said he would “reset” the UK’s relationship with Europe, “return to leadership” on climate change and “engage more deeply” with developing countries in the southern hemisphere.
His comments came at the conclusion of Nato’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington, where the Prime Minister said the allies had united behind Ukraine and the idea that a Russian victory is “unthinkable”.
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As Labour announced a series of measures to ease the overcrowding crisis facing UK jails, the ex-home secretary said the Tories needed to “take responsibility for what we left undone”.
UK plans to release more prisoners early to tackle overcrowding
Britain’s new Labour government plans to expand the early release of prisoners from September to tackle a jail overcrowding crisis which justice minister Shabana Mahmood said threatened to create “a total breakdown of law and order”.
Prisons in England and Wales have space for only 700 more male inmates and are likely to be full within weeks, after which cells in police stations would need to be used, preventing officers from patrolling the streets.
“We could see looters running amok, smashing in windows, robbing shops and setting neighbourhoods alight,” Mahmood said in a speech at a prison in central England, blaming the crisis on her Conservative predecessors.
Under the plan, which is subject to parliamentary approval, most prisoners will become eligible for release after serving 40% of their sentences behind bars, down from 50% currently.
Prisoners who are let out can be returned to jail if they reoffend or break other terms of their release.
The early release plan would be reviewed in 18 months’ time, Mahmood said. Asked how many would be freed, she said the figure was in the “low thousands” in the short term.
Source: independent.co.uk
