More than 5,000 prisoners to be released early with jails projected to overflow by September
The Justice Secretary has said the government has “no option” but to release more than 5,000 prisoners early, with jails projected to be overflowing by September.
Shabana Mahmood confirmed that for the next 18 months certain prisoners would be freed after serving just 40% of their sentence. Normally, convicts are released after half their term, pending good behaviour.
The government also announced it will conduct a review into the prison capacity crisis to understand why “necessary decisions” weren’t made at “critical moments”.
The latest figures showed there are less than 1,500 available spaces, out of a capacity of almost 89,000.
In Yorkshire, just 3% of the prison capacity is free. HMP Wakefield, the category A prison known as Monster Mansion, has just eight spaces, as does HMP Leeds.
HMP Hatfield, near Doncaster, has just three free spaces, according to the Ministry of Justice figures for June.
The government believes prisons will literally overflow in September. Around that time, 5,500 prisoners will be released early under the 40% scheme.
Ms Mahmood said: “The Government does not take this decision lightly, but to disguise reality and delay any further as the last government did is unconscionable.
“In a speech last week, I called the last occupants of Downing Street the guilty men. I did not use that analogy flippantly, I believe they placed the country in grave danger.
“Their legacy is a prison system in crisis, moments from catastrophic disaster. It was only by pure luck and the heroic efforts of prison and probation staff that disaster did not strike while they were in office.”
The Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor recently described how the smell of cannabis was “ubiquitous” on an inspection of the now infamous Wandsworth Prison.
The Prisoner Governors’ Association said the previous government “dodged difficult decisions, kicking the can down the road at every opportunity and pushing the chronic, unresolved problems on to the newly elected administration”.
Shadow justice secretary Edward Argar branded the Government’s plans to reform the planning process with the aim of building more prisons as a “gimmick”.
The Tory former prisons minister said: “We set in train the biggest prison building programme since the Victorian era, over 13,000 additional prison places delivered in government, two new prisons open, one being built, two with planning permission, and one on the cusp of a decision.
“So I do have to say, her party’s planning permission proposal for prisons wouldn’t impact on any of these, in that respect it is simply a gimmick.”
He added he has “significant public protection concerns” over the announcement, adding: “Can she confirm that domestic abusers convicted of say common assault, as is often the case, would in fact not be exempt from this policy?”