Invitation to radicals who want to abolish all jails

A GrOUP campaigning to abolish jails and release all inmates, including terrorists and sex attackers, will be hosted by pro-Corbyn movement Momentum next month.

The Empty Cages Collective (ECC), which wants to ‘bring an end to the prison system’, appears in the programme of the Momentum event, which is being held alongside the Labour Party conference.

The ECC says: ‘ We identify as abolitionists because we believe the movement to reform prisons... can legitimise the prison system and the state.’

The event will include speeches from Mr Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. The ECC is part of a wider movement to ‘plan for a world without prisons and police’ which is gaining ground on the hard Left.

The group says freed prisoners should be given ‘fulfilling roles in society’ to encourage them to behave better.

Tory MP Philip Davies said: ‘If there was a pop chart for bad ideas, this would go straight to No 1. All the criminals would be out on the streets committing crimes.’

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal reform, said there should be fewer people in prison but added: ‘ You can’t blow everything up and start again. It’s just not going to happen.’