The early release of roughly 1,750 prisoners today with the blessing of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is “risky”, with the potential for consequent “mayhem” on the streets of the nation, the inspector of prisons for England and Wales has admitted.
And one former prisoner has said inevitably some of those scheduled for release are “unstable”.
HMP Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor was speaking on the day large numbers of inmates were due to be freed before their sentences are served in a bid to cut overcrowding, along with the 1,000 more normally freed each week. The Government insists it has been forced to act to prevent the collapse of the justice system.
Nevertheless, Mr Taylor told Sky News: “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.”
A report published by Mr Taylor which coincides with the release paints a worrying picture of prison life, including a “surge in illicit drug use, self-harm and violence”.
The analysis suggests 30 out of the 32 prisons inspected were “poor or insufficiently good” in providing purposeful activity, with 60 percent overcrowded.
Planned releases were frequently underfunded, with 30 percent of those leaving Bedford Prison having nowhere to live.
Mr Taylor added: “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.”
“It’s inevitable that some of these prisoners will get recalled to custody and it’s inevitable that some of them will go out homeless.
“If people are coming out, they’re not properly prepared, and they’re homeless, then what we’ll see is the danger that they’ll commit more offences, or that they breach their bail conditions, in which case they’ll end up back inside again.”
Zack Griffiths, 32, incarcerated in HMP Parc last year in relation to drug offences, has launched a campaign group called HMP Prisons Justice Group UK.
He warned there was definite reason to be concerned about the people who would hitting the streets today, explaining: “What we’re talking about here is placing the public at harm, because these people are not being rehabilitated.
“Inmates are going to come back out on to the streets in your towns, villages and cities, and I consider them to be a higher risk because they’re using drugs, they’re unstable.”
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, justifying the Government’s move, said: “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.”
People who have committed sexual offences and those of serious violence and terrorism, plus some guilty of domestic abuse, will not be released, the government has stressed.
However, last month it emerged rioters were among those who could end up spending less time behind bars as the Government confirmed those involved in recent unrest would not be excluded from the early release plans.