Jails could free thousands early to stop virus spread

‘Weigh up protection of life and public safety’ ‘Reduce pressure on space and staff’

THOUSANDS of prisoners could be released early to ease the pressure on jails during the coronavirus crisis, the Justice Secretary has said.

Warning MPs the virus poses an ‘acute’ risk in prisons, many of which are overcrowded, Robert Buckland suggested up to 9,000 offenders currently on remand could also be released and moved into bail hostels while they await trial.

Last night it emerged a convicted sex offender had become the first prisoner to die from the virus.

The unnamed man, 84, who is understood to have had underlying health conditions, died on Sunday at category C jail HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire, where five others have also tested positive for the disease.

It reportedly led to a walkout by a number staff at the 1,220-capacity prison yesterday, with one source saying: ‘It was complete panic when we found out. Nobody knew what to do.

‘A lot of people working at the prison said they weren’t comfortable being there any more – they’ve got family members who they were worried about infecting.

‘No one has the right specialist equipment so everyone’s worried they’ve been infected too. Prison staff don’t earn very much and it’s just not worth risking it.’

Prison officers and probation staff are contracting the virus at an alarming rate, with 4,300 staff self-isolating at present.

Jo Farrar, chief executive of the Prison and

Probation Service, told MPs some 3,500 were prison staff – representing about 10 per cent of the workforce – and said four have tested positive for Covid-19, each in separate jails.

And, as of yesterday afternoon, 19 inmates in ten prisons had tested positive for the virus – a rise of six cases in 24 hours. Mr Buckland told the Commons justice committee that plans for early release would have to ‘ balance protection of life against the need to protect the public’.

He said: ‘Release on temporary licence is available. I’m keen to make judicious use of that as much as possible in order to achieve the necessary leeway.

‘I also need to think about what that means for prisoners who are going to be released any way. We have, over the next six months, quite a few thousand who will be released in the normal course of events.’

There are fears that as more inmates contract the virus, more space will need to be freed up in prisons to move them into quarantine.

Mr Buckland said the Ministry of Justice is developing an accommodation plan, which could involve releasing some of the prisoners on remand and putting them into bail hostels until they go to trial.

He said: ‘I’ve got about 9000 prisoners on remand, some of whom are on remand for very serious matters. We’ve got to use discretion carefully.

‘There is definitely a case for us looking expansively at what we can do with supported bail accommodation to try to alleviate some of the pressures. The question of risk has to be up there.’ Mr Buckland

added that one of the ‘acute’ challenges was working out what to do with vulnerable people and those with poorer health.

For example, the MoJ is currently reviewing what to do with the 50 pregnant women across the prison estate.

Mr Buckland said prisons, which have cancelled all visits, had already worked to isolate prisoners and separate inmates as much as possible. He added the ‘problem will only get more serious’.

Prisoners have also been subjected to stricter daily routines with fewer options to leave cells.

And around 50,000 protective masks have been delivered for staff to use, while a ban on bringing hand sanitiser into prisons has been lifted. Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said of the plans for early release: ‘In a chronically overcrowded system, this will help keep people safe by reducing the pressure on both space and staff resources.

‘For this to work, there will need to be support to organisations, many of them charities, that help prisoners on release.

‘And it’s vital that while creating some headroom through releases, the flow of people into prisons is also drastically reduced. That means not sending anyone to prison for all but the most serious alleged or proved offending, and not recalling people to prison in all but the most dangerous of circumstances.’

Mr Buckland’s warning came as the High Court dismissed a legal challenge seeking the temporary release of immigration detainees.

Charity Detention Action applied for all detainees to be released initially – but Dame Victoria Sharp and Mr Justice Swift ruled ‘even in the extreme circumstances’, the detention regime was able to continue to ‘provide safe arrangements for detention’.

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