Government announces new early release scheme for prisoners

The Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has hit out at Rishi Sunak and "his gang in No 10" over the prison overcrowding crisis, describing them as "guilty men" who had put their political careers ahead of the safety of the country.

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Without immediate action to address the crisis, she said, the entire criminal justice system was in danger of collapse.

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[StandingSpiral]

How about instant deportation for foreign national prisoners.

[lorraineseviere]

Perhaps judges shouldn't put 52 yearly old ladies in prison for tweeting

[beatarylko-zgmm]

Police in total mess, most of the criminals not accountable. Criminal justice ?

[SRSR-pcti]

How about dealing with the housing crisis for those of us not in prison?

[mordusy]

Why not build more prisons instead of houses.

[simonh]

10 million of you voted for this. Thanks a bunch.

[lucenacityful]

CANT HOUSE THE FREE, CANT HOUSE THE CONVICTS EITHER.

[benjiradebe]

Looking at the USA, this policy isn't a good idea...

[SteveSmith]

Labours answer to the prison problem...let them out !... Labours answer to the illegal immigrant problem... let them in !... CAN YOU SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING FOLKS ?

[callumrowley]

Scrapped the Rwanda Scheme and now releasing prisoners along with shorter release times on sentences. Labour - for the people.

[franhawIreland]

Is she going to be responsible for every single crime no matter how small by every Prisoner released?

Prison should mean prison.

If she can’t do the job she should hand it over to someone else you don’t release prisoners. What does this say to the victims - WHAT ABOUT The VICTIMS???

[stevenelliott]

To be honest I don't care if they have to sleep outside in the rain, and are they seriously saying prisoners are complaining they're being let out early? And has he tried living next to an ex con with a drug problem? I have and I'd much rather they were kept locked away

[emme]

People in these comments complaining about Labour doing this, but completely ignoring the fact it was originally a Tory idea.

And also forgetting the fact that the Tories released a lot of people from prison on early release during covid.

[Ghosted-flxt]

Heres a radical idea to prisons being full.... Build more prisons!!!

[petermoran]

Wooden huts and barbed wire. It was enough to keep thousands of P.O.W. s captive during the war so why can't they do that for low risk prisoners now?

[davenicoll]

Please don't put all the blame on the last government, labour have been just as guilty of ignoring prisons from their time in power.

[GonadsOfGodrey]

People are very eager to forget this was a plan already set in motion by the Tories, it wasn't something that could be cancelled.

[joewee]

Pretty simple, start implementing capital punishment.

[stephenwalker]

If you don't seriously tackle recidivism and its causes, all this is for nought. How about improving probation and rehabilitation services, hostels, housing and rehousing, drug treatment centres, out-reach programmes, mental health services, job search opportunities? Why don't Labour look at the reasons why the UK has such a high prison population and such high levels of drug and gang crime? Do the job properly or not at all.

[matthewleitch]

Is the intention to release people earlier or allow parole earlier? There is a big difference because parole is a form of filtering that tries to identify people who can safely be released before their full sentence has run.