Jails to free hundreds more under early release scheme
HUNDREDS of criminals are set to be freed early under an expansion of a scheme to relieve pressure on crammed prisons.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk announced in October that inmates serving up to four years in prison may be let out up to 18 days early under temporary emergency measures.
Now the space-saving scheme is being expanded to more jails to ease the overcrowding crisis.
Originally, the End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL) was meant to be used ‘for a limited period’ in 21 jails to reduce an ‘acute and exceptional demand’ on prison places.
‘This power will only be used for a limited period and only in targeted areas,’ Mr Chalk said.
Four months on and the scheme is being expanded to more jails.
And leaked guidance to prisons seen by Sky News suggests the scheme will continue to run for the foreseeable future.
The guidance says the scheme has been ‘revised’ and ‘activated for an undefined period’, plus ‘updated to facilitate/support activation in new prisons’.
Officials have been unable to supply a date when the practice will end.
Anyone serving a life sentence, extended determinate sentence, or jailed for a serious violent, terror or sexual offence is excluded from the scheme. But violent thugs serving time for wounding and assault are among those that could win early release.
Offenders guilty of domestic abuse crimes may also be eligible.
More than 250 prisoners were freed 18 days before their scheduled release date in the first two weeks of the emergency scheme.
That represented around one in eight prisoners freed at that time, with 1,000 inmates being released on average every week.
It is the first time in more than 16 years that the Government has been forced to introduce an early release scheme because of the lack of space in prisons in England and Wales. It was last done under Labour in 2007.
Officials have refused to say how many criminals have already been released under the scheme, but offenders will remain on licence with conditions on their release.
Breach of the conditions could lead to the offender being recalled to custody.
Senior prison staff have been given criteria by which they could block inmates from early release.
However, the document stresses that doing this should only be in ‘exceptional’ circumstances. Latest
‘The system is at 110% capacity’
figures show that 87,973 inmates are currently behind bars in England and Wales.
The number that can be held in ‘safe and decent accommodation’ in prison, known as the ‘certified normal accommodation’, is considered by the Ministry of Justice to be 79,507, meaning the system is at 110.6 per cent capacity.
Labour justice spokesman Shabana Mahmood said: ‘This is extraordinarily damning – the Conservative Government cannot continue to extend and expand indefinitely what is supposed to be a temporary scheme with zero transparency.
‘It is not a surprise to me given the scale of the Government’s prison crisis that they have extended this scheme, but at the very least they should acknowledge the public have a right to know about the details of this scheme, and Parliament has a right to know.’
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘The terms of the End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme have not changed since it was announced in October.’ The spokesman added: ‘It is temporary and only used to relieve pressure in prisons where necessary. Only offenders who are a matter of days away from release are being considered and anyone convicted of a sexual, terrorist or serious violent offence is excluded, with those who break the rules facing a return to jail.’