Alright, so like, over a thousand inmates are gonna get let out early in England and Wales. The justice secretary decided it’s time to free up some space in the prisons because they’re packed to the brim. Basically, if you’ve been locked up for one to four years and you break the rules, you’ll get released after 28 days.
Shabana Mahmood mentioned that they’re putting in a whopping £4.7bn to build more prisons, but she’s kinda skeptical about whether that will really solve the problem. The Ministry of Justice folks are like, “Yo, if we don’t do something now, we’re gonna run out of prison spots in just five months.” That sounds pretty intense, right?
So, last week the prisons minister was all like, “Nah, we’re not gonna do any emergency releases,” but now they’re doing exactly that. The plan is to open up around 1,400 spots in prisons to buy some time and fix a system that’s basically falling apart. But hold up, this early release thing doesn’t apply to serious offenders or high-risk peeps. They usually go in front of a parole board, but the government is skipping that step because they’re in a hurry.
Now, Mahmood is saying that even though they’re starting work on three new prisons this year, it’s not gonna magically solve everything. They’re running out of space for male offenders by November if they don’t figure something out. The new prisons will cost a whopping £4.7bn and they’re starting with one near HMP Gartree in Leicestershire. Another one already opened near York earlier this year.
The Ministry of Justice’s interim permanent secretary, Amy Rees, is dropping some truth bombs by saying that if things keep going the way they are, England will be totally out of space for adult male prisoners by November. The number of recalled prisoners has been going up, and now there’s almost no room left. Things are getting pretty tight, with only about 1,355 spots left out of a total capacity of 89,442.
The plan is to let out offenders with sentences between one and four years who messed up their parole conditions, like not following curfews. It won’t include those who committed new crimes, though. The Prison Officers Association chair thinks that building new prisons won’t really fix the overcrowding problem. He suggests that the government should focus on other stuff like modernizing existing prisons, beefing up mental health services, and making sure community sentences actually work.
One victim is pretty ticked off that her perpetrator, who broke a restraining order, might get released early. She thinks it’s unfair that some criminals get off easy without serving their full time. The Domestic Abuse Commissioner is also concerned, saying that releasing these offenders puts victims at risk. She argues that people don’t get sent to prison for four years for no reason, and letting them back out so soon is a bad idea.
The government is making these moves just before the independent sentencing review led by David Gauke drops its recommendations. They might suggest more community-based sentencing to reduce the reliance on locking people up. Last year, thousands of offenders were released early to avoid overcrowding issues. Between September and December, over 16,000 prisoners got out early under a new scheme. It applied to those serving more than five years, except for serious violent, sexual, or terrorism cases.
So, it looks like things are pretty chaotic in the prison system right now. Let’s hope these new plans actually help fix some of the problems before it gets even worse.
