Britain will release 6,000 prisoners to ease the prison crisis
Thousands of prisoners in England and Wales are set to be released early under the UK government’s prison reform programme, with the first group expected to leave custody in September as ministers try to ease overcrowding in the prison system.The Ministry of Justice intends to release about 6,000 prisoners in stages over the coming months. Inmates serving sentences of less than 18 months are expected to be released first, with longer-term inmates becoming eligible later under the timeline. Those serving prison sentences of more than 12 years could start leaving prison from June next year if they meet the legal criteria, the Daily Mail reported.The changes come in the wake of Labour’s Sentencing Bill, which allows some violent and sexual offenders to be released after serving half their sentence instead of the previous two-thirds.
Other offenders may be eligible for release after serving a third of their sentence if they demonstrate good behavior while in custody.The reforms do not apply to criminals serving mandatory life sentences for murder, who must continue to serve the minimum term set by the court before becoming eligible for parole.The plans have drawn criticism from opposition politicians and judicial groups, who say victims may feel distressed by perpetrators leaving prison earlier than expected.
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy described the policy as “reckless” and said that dangerous criminals “should stay behind bars where they belong,” the newspaper reported. Conservative justice spokesman Dr Kieran Mullan also criticized the programme, saying: “Victims will feel justice has been stolen from them by these plans. Seeing dangerous criminals released from prison years early will horrify most victims and the public as well.”The government has defended the reforms, saying they are necessary to prevent prisons from running out of space. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said the previous administration left the prison under intense pressure, and that this measure was necessary to avoid a wider collapse of the criminal justice system.The department said it was expanding prison capacity by creating an additional 14,000 places while investing £700 million in probation services, hiring an additional 1,300 probation officers this year and increasing the use of electronic tags for prisoners released into the community.