Thursday, July 11, 2024

UK
Starmer has no option but to reduce prisoner sentences or risk justice system collapse, unions warn

Exclusive: Anything less than freeing up thousands of spaces ‘would be complete waste of time’, union chief warns

Andy Gregory
THE INDEPENDENT
JULY 11,2024

Sir Keir Starmer’s new government has “no other alternative” but to release prisoners 40 per cent of the way into their sentence to ease the overcrowding crisis behind bars and avert the collapse of the criminal justice system, unions have warned.

The new justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is expected to announce such measures on Friday, with exemptions for more serious offenders, after Sir Keir described his shock at the extent of the mess he has inherited from the Conservative government.


Rishi Sunak’s administration is understood to have drawn up similar plans before abandoning them prior to calling the general election in June. He had already been forced to release prisoners progressively earlier since October, reaching up to 70 days early in May.

Describing the bringing forward individual prisoners’ release dates as having caused “absolute mayhem” for the probation service, Napo union chief Ian Lawrence said he hopes the new move of a more blanket recalculation of sentences will ease some of the pressure.

Sir Keir Starmer described his shock at the state of the nation’s prisons (HMIP)

“We’re not opposed to the early release of prisoners to free up capacity for those who deserve to be behind bars, but you have to do it in an orderly way and the current scheme does not do that – it’s not giving enough time for assessment to be made about the risks of a particular individual,” he told The Independent.

“That’s caused absolute mayhem for probation staff because we’re trying to deal with people at short notice. If they’re not in place with a rehabilitation plan, the chances are they’ll be recalled (to prison) in a week or two, so it’s a revolving door scenario.”

The probation union chief called for a “properly monitored scheme” which gives probation staff sufficient time to assess each individual prisoner, adding: “None of that was part of last government thinking. They just wanted to clear the cells, come what may, and not listen to the experts.”

He added: “That will give us more time to play with, but it’s the volume that still concerns me. How are we going to deal with this with the limited capacity we have?”

Warning that the probation service is in desperate need of a major financial rescue package, Mr Lawrence said: “You’ve got to pay staff sufficiently to recruit, retain and motivate.”

Demanding that the new government look at reopening pay negotiations immediately, he warned that the £150m a year touted by the previous administration “hasn’t produced the results we need”.

Indicating that the prospect of strike action remains on the table, he said: “Napo have taken a decision to postpone the prospect of immediate industrial action while we await engagement with the minister.”

And as Sir Keir touts the idea of private help for the public sector, Mr Lawrence warned Napo “will be utterly opposed to any concept of private sector involvement into the work of probation”, saying: “Any government ought to have learnt their lesson by now that that was a disaster for the taxpayer and the service.”

The new justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood (REUTERS)

With probation officer caseloads already well over capacity, Mr Lawrence expressed hopes for a review of the service itself and a “root-and-branch” review to establish “whether our sentencing policies are fit for purpose and meet the need of the times”.

Suggesting that there was “much to be learned” from the “courageous” attempts of Tory ministers Rory Stewart and David Gauke to end the use of short sentences in order to reduce reoffending, he added: “Unless you do that, the cycle will continue and prisons will become full again very quickly.

“Is this government going to take the brave steps to really have a look at short-term sentencing?”

In the short term, Carl Davies of the Prison Governors Association warned that Sir Keir has “no other alternative” than to release most prisoners 40 per cent of the way into their sentence, as opposed to halfway through.

“Prisons are all but full” and “to some degree, we’re in a ‘one in, one out’ scenario in some parts of the country” already, he said.

Warning that the previous government’s early release scheme had seen probation’s limited resources “channeled into managing a capacity crisis in prisons, and that’s a waste of their skilled and valued resource”, he added: “Having an automatic 40 per cent mark does away with that additional workload.”

Steve Gillan, head of the Prison Officer Association, also told The Independent that it is “inevitable” that Sir Keir would have to strategically release prisoners “otherwise the criminal justice system would have collapsed”.

“The reality is that this is going to have be done and done quickly to relieve the pressure on system”, and the new scheme must free up between three and five thousand spaces, said the union chief, warning that “anything less than that would be a complete waste of time”.

Warning that more long-term solutions are needed, Mr Gillan insisted you “can’t build your way out of a crisis”, as he suggested spending the £4bn earmarked for new prisons internally instead to immediately improve conditions while planning “a proper sentencing policy that actually reduces the population”.

Keir Starmer promises to send fewer people to prison as he prepares to release offenders early


The prime minister has hit out at the inheritance left for him by the Conservatives and branded Britain’s prison system “broken”, speaking of his shock at discovering the scale of the crisis
THE INDEPENDENT
JULY 11,2024

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to send fewer people to jail in the long term while he prepares to oversee the mass early release of prisoners to ease the overcrowding crisis facing the UK’s jails.

The prime minister hit out at the inheritance left for him by the Conservatives and branded Britain’s prison system “broken”, speaking of his shock at discovering the scale of the crisis.

And Sir Keir warned he cannot build new prisons in just seven days.

It has led to widespread expectations that the new justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, will use a major speech on Friday to unveil measures aimed at easing the crisis.

The prime minister said he was “pretty shocked” at the scale of the situation (PA Wire)

The spate of emergency measures is set to include automatically releasing prisoners on standard determinate sentences after they have served just 40 per cent of their time. The current threshold is 50 per cent, and exemptions for serious violent and sexual offenders are expected.

Former justice secretary Alex Chalk told the BBC on Thursday that the last government had planned to release some prisoners after serving 40 per cent of their time, with an aim to jail fewer people altogether.

The plans were not implemented for fears it would damage the Tories’ electoral chances and face a lack of support in parliament, he said.

Speaking to Channel 4 while attending the Nato summit in Washington, DC, Sir Keir said: “I’m shocked to be in this position, particularly having worked in criminal justice. It is a basic function of government that there should be enough prison places for the number of people that courts are sending to prison. That basic premise broke down under the last government, that is beyond irresponsible, and we’re going to have to pick up that mess and they ignored it.

“I can’t build a prison in seven days with the best will in the world. It is clearly a problem left by the last government. We cannot be in this terrible state and they ignored the problem, didn’t fix the problem, we are going to have to fix it.

Former justice secretary Alex Chalk said there were plans in place to ease the crisis but they were dropped for political reasons (Getty Images)

“We have to make short-term measures that we will announce in due course and then of course we’ll have to do even further measures. I simply can’t build a prison in seven days.

“This is a terrible failure of the last government.”

The PM indicated in the interview that longer term he would aim to send fewer people to prison in the first place.

It follows the appointment of James Timpson as prisons minister, with the businessman having previously said only a third of those in jail should be there.

He has also said Britain is “addicted to sentencing and punishment”, and spoken of the need to reduce reoffending rates.

Sir Keir said: “I spent five years of my life as the chief prosecutor, bringing cases which led to serious criminals going to prison for very long periods of time. In relation to the work that could be done to prevent people going to prison, I have always believed that there are cases which didn’t need to have got to court.”

He cited a promise during the general election campaign to prevent young people from falling into knife crime by setting up youth hubs as “an opportunity to pull people out”.

And on those who may be released under the emergency measures to relieve overcrowding, Sir Keir made clear that “there will be exclusions”.

But, in another interview, he told ITV: “Of course I can’t tell you how frustrated I am to be put in this position by the previous government. It’s worse than we thought… It is a catastrophic failure. It’s reckless to have allowed this to have happened, we’ll have to take the necessary action.”

Sir Keir’s predecessor as director of public prosecutions said the prime minister faces a “huge political risk” releasing prisoners early, as some will go on to re-offend.

Lord Macdonald told Times Radio: “If you release a big batch of prisoners, some of them will go on to offend... We have the worst recidivism rates in western Europe.

“People come out of prison, they offend... So, yes, of course, there’s a huge political risk here. I think what’s depressing about this is that the only reason we’re really confronting this problem now is because the government has no choice. It literally has no choice because it’s got no cells to put prisoners in."

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