CRACKDOWN ON SOFT JUSTICE
Victims put first as violent criminals made to serve two-thirds of jail term
VIOLENT criminals will no longer be automatically freed halfway into their sentences.
The most serious offenders, including rapists, will stay locked up for at least two-thirds of their prison terms.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland today pledges to restore faith in the broken criminal justice system.
Punishments must reflect the severity of crimes, he said, adding: “We owe it to victims.” Legislation being brought immediately before Parliament to end soft justice will also mean those let out will face strict licence conditions.
Writing exclusively in today’s Daily Express Mr Buckland says: “Time and again I have experienced victims who feel let down. Let down by a system that can allow rapists and violent criminals back on to our streets within a shorter time frame than could possibly fit their
crimes.” Today’s legislation – effective from April 1 – will abolish soft touch Labour laws.
Offenders have known for 15 years that a 10-year term for crimes such as serious sexual offences really only means five years in jail.
More than 90 per cent of criminals sent to prison are automatically released halfway through their sentence, including some of the most serious sexual predators and violent criminals.
The current soft laws were passed in 2005 when Tony Blair was prime minister and Lord Falconer was lord chancellor.
Mr Buckland, the current Lord Chancellor who is also a QC, writes: “Today I am pleased to announce that from April this year serious violent and sexual offenders will spend more time where they belong – behind bars.
“Never again should the victim of a heinous violent or sexual crime need to worry that their attacker might only serve half of the sentence.”
The changes to legislation, which only will apply to those put behind bars after the law comes into force, cover criminals handed what are known as standard determinate sentences of seven years or more. Offences include manslaughter and rape. The majority of such offenders jailed for serious sexual and violence crimes are presently automatically released halfway into their sentence and put on licence for the second half of their term.
In 2018, more than 4,000 standard determinate sentences were imposed for sexual and violent offences.
There were also around 250 extended determinate sentences where an offender only becomes eligible to be considered for release by the Parole Board after two-thirds is served and can be made to stay in prison for the full term.
Convicts who receive life sentences are only ever freed on licence. Some are never released.
Patrick Green, chief executive of the Ben Kinsella Trust, named after a 16-year-old boy stabbed to death in London by three murderers in 2008, said: “I am pleased to see the Government is changing the automatic release dates for prisoners of the most serious crimes.”
The Government has already announced a law change that will mean the most serious terrorists will spend a mandatory minimum of 14 years in prison.
‘Serious violent and sexual offenders will spend more time behind bars’
WE CAN all rest a lot easier knowing that convicted terrorists will soon have to serve a minimum of 14 years in jail, more than four times longer than the current minimum punishment. Releasing them early to re-offend has caused too much heartache and Home Secretary Priti Patel is right to read the public mood on this.
Longer sentences will also come with more funding to ensure these threats to society do not slip through the net and get freed by mistake.
Terror offender Usman Khan had been in jail for only eight years when he was released on licence and slaughtered Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt last November, both bright young people at the start of their lives. And he would have killed more people had not brave members of the public intervened and the police shot him dead.
Eight years behind bars had not cooled his Islamist fanaticism and he’d played his jailers as fools. Earlier this month, two Islamist prisoners, both wearing fake suicide vests like the London Bridge attacker, stabbed five officers at HMP Whitemoor maximum security facility. Both of them shouted jihadi slogans.
ONE of the alleged attackers was jailed in 2015 for plotting to behead a British soldier, while another had converted to Islam in prison. Reports regularly cite imprisoned terrorists beating fellow inmates into joining their deadly brand of fundamentalism and enacting sharia courts to pass judgment on others.
HMP Whitemoor was visited by Usman Khan on licence so he could tell the inmates about his supposed rehabilitation. Clearly he was very good at pulling the wool over the eyes of those prison authorities entrusted with protecting us. Let’s just forget about deradicalising these dangerous individuals as many are more adept at manipulating gullible staff. It’s more important to keep them off the streets.
It can’t be good news that at least 74 other terror offenders have been released early from jail. A further 224 in prison are eligible for early release under the current law. Automatic longer sentences for such resolute terrorists will ensure we are less likely to be put at risk.
An extra £90million will also be spent on recruiting enough counter-terrorism probation officers to monitor these offenders more closely when they are finally freed. Lie-detectors and any other mechanisms to check if they have truly abandoned their murderous ways are good but cannot substitute for keeping them behind bars for longer.
It’s not just terrorists either that should be treated this way. Too many other serious offenders, including serial rapists and murderers, have been automatically freed halfway through their sentences – a policy that now faces a radical overhaul.
It cannot ever be good enough to release early thousands of dangerous offenders just because jails are getting overcrowded. Build more prisons. Black cab rapist John Worboys could have been back on the streets after just 10 years behind bars had his early release not caused alarm. Convicted for attacks on 12 women, it was estimated he may have assaulted more than 100 victims. The ensuing public outcry ensured he got returned to prison where he belonged.
That’s not to say that some prisoners can’t be rehabilitated and deserve a second chance. It was ex-con John Crilly who helped tackle the London Bridge terrorist with a fire extinguisher. But Crilly had already been in jail for 13 years and his original conviction for joint enterprise murder had been quashed.
When it comes to fanatical terrorists and criminals so evil, like Worboys, the public have a right to know they will serve very long terms without early release. Our right to protection is far more important than their rights to merciful treatment.
It cannot be fair that judges give lengthy sentences undermined by an early release system. Victims rightly demand a more honest judiciary that gives us the truth about how long these menaces to society are going to serve behind bars.
SENTENCES must match the severity of crimes. Otherwise our faith in law and order will be further diminished.
Boris Johnson and his government are finally tackling this iniquity and delivering a tougher message to those who seek to do us harm. The age of hand-wringing liberals is over and the Tories are at last listening to voters fed up with neverending stories of bad people freed early to commit more crimes. If this legislation is passed it will be a worthy monument to the victims of criminals who have abused a lenient justice system and will make us all feel a little safer.
‘Age of hand-wringing liberals is over – the Tories are listening’