It’s putting ‘greater strain on already stretched probation services’
The early release of approximately 1,750 prisoners is proving controversial as experts warn that the scheme will ‘create mayhem’.
The scheme was announced shortly after Sir Keir Starmer and his labour government came to power at the beginning of July and has been put in place to alleviate the pressure on the UK’s overcrowded prisons.
The government insists that the alternative would have led to a ‘total collapse of the criminal justice system.’
HMP Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor warned that prisons are in danger of becoming a ‘revolving door’ because prisoners are not ‘doing the work needed in order to go out and be successful when they leave prison’.
Talking to Sky News Mr Taylor said: “It’s a risky time with so many prisoners coming out at the same time.
“Normally, there are about 1,000 prisoners coming out a week. Most of those 1,000 prisoners will still come out this week.
“But on top of that, we’ve got 1,700 other prisoners, and then in October, we have another tranche of around 2,000 coming out as well, inevitably, that puts some risks into local communities and greater strain on already stretched probation services.”
However, the Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood defended the decision saying: “We inherited a prison system on the point of collapse. This is not a change we wanted to make – it was the only option left on the table because the alternative would have seen a total collapse of the criminal justice system.
“We would have seen the breakdown of law and order because courts would not have been able to conduct trials, and the police would not have been able to make arrests.”
Those convicted of sexual offences, serious violence and terrorism offences and some cases relating to domestic abuse will not be eligible for early release.
The government argues that it announced the decision early enough to give probation services time to prepare.
A report commissioned by the chief inspector shows the devastating impact of life behind the bars as ‘a surge in illicit drug use, self-harm and violence’ was noted.
30 out of 32 inspected prisons were deemed ‘poor or insufficiently good’ in providing purposeful activity and 60 per cent were overcrowed.
At Bedford prison, 30 per cent of those leaving jail had nowhere to live.
Mr Taylor said: “Unless we make sure that people are kept in decent conditions and that they’re doing the work they need to do in order to go out and be successful when they leave prison, then the danger is we end up, as we see in so many cases, that prisoners are simply a revolving door; untreated mental health problems, untreated drug users, people with nowhere to live when they come out, and that just creates more victims of crime, more mayhem in communities and a prison population that is now almost unmanageable.”
Campaigners say that overcrowding can prove fatal for prisoners and that this, coupled with staff shortages, lead to an increase in drug addiction and self-harm.
Earlier this year there were 10 deaths in just three months at Parc prison in Bridgend with many of the deaths attributed to the use of synthetic drugs such as spice and nitazines.
