We pay £12m legal bill for inmates to get out of jail
TAXPAYERS are spending more than £1million every month providing “free” lawyers to prison inmates, figures have revealed.
A record £12.1million was spent last year on legal aid to assist criminals including rapists, murderers and paedophiles at their parole hearings.
In almost 6,000 hearings, conducted in jails around the country, inmates wanted help lobbying for a release or a transfer to an institution with a lower security ranking.
Prisoners can demand lawyers represent them at the hearings and the bill for their representation is picked up by the taxpayer.
The latest figures from the Ministry of Justice show there were 5,894 parole hearings between 2017 and 2018 where funding was provided to an inmate for legal assistance.
The parole system became a political hot potato last year when former taxi driver John Worboys, who was convicted of assaults on 12 women, was granted release, only to have the decision quashed in the High Court. Then, in December, it was revealed that triple child killer David McGreavy, 67, had been cleared for release by the Parole Board.
He has been eligible for parole for 25 years but every previous application had been turned down.
Officials also revealed that £2million was spent providing legal aid to prisoners caught up in jail disciplinary hearings.
David Spencer, research director at the Centre for Crime Prevention, said: “While everyone is entitled to proper legal representation, it is ridiculous that such huge sums of public money are being poured into trying to help convicted criminals.
“The parole system in this country is in dire need of reform.”