Prisoners set free
10,000 set free early from crowded prisons
By Ben Leapman, Home Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:48am GMT 25/11/2007
More than 10,000 prisoners have been freed under an early-release scheme to ease overcrowding in jails, the Government will admit this week.
Nick Herbert: We need prisons with a purpose
At least 300 were locked up again after they were caught reoffending or breaking the terms of their licences.
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The End of Custody Licence (ECL) scheme, introduced in June, allows most prisoners to leave prison 18 days before their normal release date. Only the most serious violent and sexual offenders are excluded.
The Ministry of Justice will release the figures in advance of a report by Lord Carter of Coles, which is expected to recommend that some criminals should be spared prison if there is a shortage of cells.
It comes as the Conservatives prepare to launch a campaign on law and order, under the slogan "Labour's giving criminals a break".
Nick Herbert, the shadow justice secretary, will tomorrow accuse ministers of failing to build new prisons despite knowing they were needed. He will call for Victorian prisons to be sold off for housing, and replaced by smaller, modern units.
Under the emergency early-release scheme, a prisoner sentenced to six months in jail, who would normally be released after three months, now serves only two-and-a-half months.
At least 2,000 prisoners a month are benefiting. The latest published monthly figures showed that 8,520 had been released early up to the end of September, with 285 later returned to jail. This week's figures will cover the month of October.
Lord Carter was commissioned in May by the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, to review the prison system. His final report, due within weeks, is expected to recommend:
?_? prisoners sentenced to less than six months only serve their time if there is room for them in jail;
?_? a two-tier system, with "federal prisons" for high-risk offenders and "community prisons" for the rest;
?_? closure of 15 women's jails, to be replaced by smaller secure units.
Lord Phillips, the Lord Chief Justice, appeared to prepare the ground for a move to hand out softer sentences when prisons are full. He declared, in a lecture this month, that "some method must be found of linking resources to the setting of the sentencing framework."
Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, said in a speech last week that Lord Phillips had been "correct" in his pronouncement. He has promised to build 9,500 prison places within five years.
Last week the prison population stood at 81,454, down slightly from the record of 81,547 set the previous week. There were 197 convicts being held in police cells because jails were full.
Mr Herbert, who is leading a Tory review of prisons policy, claimed that overcrowded jails were fuelling a "cycle of crime" because they made it impossible to rehabilitate convicts.
He said: "Labour has wasted billions while failing to provide the necessary prison capacity. Now they are trying to get themselves out of this mess by giving criminals a break with their plans to weaken sentences, preventing repeat offenders being sent to prison.
"We can't reform offenders in overcrowded jails built two hundred years ago. Our mission is to break the cycle of reoffending by redeveloping the prison estate in the most radical shake-up for two centuries."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "ECL is a temporary measure to ensure we have enough spaces for those serious and violent offenders who have been sent to prison. All those released 18 days early are subject to a stringent recall process should they breach the conditions of their licence."
Next week, the Ministry of Justice will disclose the number of foreign nationals in English and Welsh prisons and the average length of prison sentences handed out last year.
Some of the increase in the prison population has been blamed on the introduction of "indeterminate sentences" for dangerous offenders, which carry a minimum term but no fixed release date. Judges have handed out far more than the Government anticipated.
David Hanson, the prisons minister, said last week that police forces in England and Wales had billed the Government for A?28.7 million to meet the cost of accommodating thousands of prisoners in police cells since the start of Operation Safeguard. This began in October last year as a result of prison overcrowding.[:(!]
By Ben Leapman, Home Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:48am GMT 25/11/2007
More than 10,000 prisoners have been freed under an early-release scheme to ease overcrowding in jails, the Government will admit this week.
Nick Herbert: We need prisons with a purpose
At least 300 were locked up again after they were caught reoffending or breaking the terms of their licences.
advertisement
The End of Custody Licence (ECL) scheme, introduced in June, allows most prisoners to leave prison 18 days before their normal release date. Only the most serious violent and sexual offenders are excluded.
The Ministry of Justice will release the figures in advance of a report by Lord Carter of Coles, which is expected to recommend that some criminals should be spared prison if there is a shortage of cells.
It comes as the Conservatives prepare to launch a campaign on law and order, under the slogan "Labour's giving criminals a break".
Nick Herbert, the shadow justice secretary, will tomorrow accuse ministers of failing to build new prisons despite knowing they were needed. He will call for Victorian prisons to be sold off for housing, and replaced by smaller, modern units.
Under the emergency early-release scheme, a prisoner sentenced to six months in jail, who would normally be released after three months, now serves only two-and-a-half months.
At least 2,000 prisoners a month are benefiting. The latest published monthly figures showed that 8,520 had been released early up to the end of September, with 285 later returned to jail. This week's figures will cover the month of October.
Lord Carter was commissioned in May by the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, to review the prison system. His final report, due within weeks, is expected to recommend:
?_? prisoners sentenced to less than six months only serve their time if there is room for them in jail;
?_? a two-tier system, with "federal prisons" for high-risk offenders and "community prisons" for the rest;
?_? closure of 15 women's jails, to be replaced by smaller secure units.
Lord Phillips, the Lord Chief Justice, appeared to prepare the ground for a move to hand out softer sentences when prisons are full. He declared, in a lecture this month, that "some method must be found of linking resources to the setting of the sentencing framework."
Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, said in a speech last week that Lord Phillips had been "correct" in his pronouncement. He has promised to build 9,500 prison places within five years.
Last week the prison population stood at 81,454, down slightly from the record of 81,547 set the previous week. There were 197 convicts being held in police cells because jails were full.
Mr Herbert, who is leading a Tory review of prisons policy, claimed that overcrowded jails were fuelling a "cycle of crime" because they made it impossible to rehabilitate convicts.
He said: "Labour has wasted billions while failing to provide the necessary prison capacity. Now they are trying to get themselves out of this mess by giving criminals a break with their plans to weaken sentences, preventing repeat offenders being sent to prison.
"We can't reform offenders in overcrowded jails built two hundred years ago. Our mission is to break the cycle of reoffending by redeveloping the prison estate in the most radical shake-up for two centuries."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "ECL is a temporary measure to ensure we have enough spaces for those serious and violent offenders who have been sent to prison. All those released 18 days early are subject to a stringent recall process should they breach the conditions of their licence."
Next week, the Ministry of Justice will disclose the number of foreign nationals in English and Welsh prisons and the average length of prison sentences handed out last year.
Some of the increase in the prison population has been blamed on the introduction of "indeterminate sentences" for dangerous offenders, which carry a minimum term but no fixed release date. Judges have handed out far more than the Government anticipated.
David Hanson, the prisons minister, said last week that police forces in England and Wales had billed the Government for A?28.7 million to meet the cost of accommodating thousands of prisoners in police cells since the start of Operation Safeguard. This began in October last year as a result of prison overcrowding.[:(!]
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Executing the ones on death row, and the habitual offenders, would free up some space. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by pickenup
Executing the ones on death row, and the habitual offenders, would free up some space.
+10 -
quote:Originally posted by pickenup
Executing the ones on death row, and the habitual offenders, would free up some space.
There is a death row in English and Welsh prisons [?]
Can you even imagine someone in the USA being called lord anything? I tend to discount most articles dealing with the Brits automatically.0 -
quote:Originally posted by pickenup
Executing the ones on death row, and the habitual offenders, would free up some space.
Also the pedophiles.0 -
The Brits are pulling out of Iraq so how can we even consider an article dealing with their prisons? 0 -
they gotta make room for law abiding gun owners that they write new laws that make them criminals 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Hunter Mag
quote:Originally posted by pickenup
Executing the ones on death row, and the habitual offenders, would free up some space.
Also the pedophiles.
And the engineers...........0
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