Victims minister insists early jail launch ‘is not going to imply freedom’ after criticism

Alex Davies-Jones said ramped up restrictions and monitoring will be in place for thousands of prisoners released early from October after criticism from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales

View 3 Images

Early prison release will not mean freedom, the victims’ minister has insisted, amid alarm about thousands of criminals being let out of jail.

Alex Davies-Jones said inmates who are released early will face a raft of restrictions as she attempted to reassure victims. It comes after the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Nicole Jacobs, said she was deeply concerned about the number of abusers set to be freed.

From October around 4,500 prisoners will be released over 10 months after serving between a third and half of their sentence in order to deal with the prison capacity crisis left by the Tories.

Ms Davies-Jones told BBC Breakfast that world-first measures will be in place to monitor them – with a presumption to force domestic abusers to wear tags. She said: “We’re ensuring that victims have the opportunity to feed into licensing conditions.

“Because release does not mean freedom. So when these offenders come out of prison, the presumption will be that they will all be placed on a GPS monitoring tag.

“We’re introducing for the first time ever a world-first restriction zone to limit the freedom and location that the offender can go. And we are also banning them from things like pubs, concerts, public spaces, taking away their driver’s licence, mandatory work placements.

“All of this being carried out to ensure that the victims are put front and centre, that they do have consideration, because previously, they weren’t considered. The Prime Minister is right. It’s time we put victims back at the heart of our criminal justice system, and we take their views into consideration.”

She continued: “We’re also ensuring that victims can feed into licensing conditions for their offender, something that hasn’t been done under previous early release schemes because it was done under cloak and dagger with no transparency.

“So we’re ensuring we’re doing this responsibly and effectively and safely, to ensure that all views are taken into consideration.”

On Sunday Andy Burnham announced that killers would be excluded from the controversial early release scheme. Rapists, child sex offenders and groomers will also be ineligible.

It means two men serving 13 years for manslaughter over the 2019 killing of PC Andrew Harper will not be freed next year.

Ms Davies-Jones said male prisons are currently at 98% of capacity, and failure to act would have been catastrophic. The minister said: “What I will not stand for, and what this government must be responsible for, is to keep the public safe and ensure that there is always a prison place available for someone who needs it.

“The worst thing in the world would be for a domestic abuser to be sentenced to prison, and we are not able to lock them up because there isn’t a prison place available, so we have to send them home back to their victim.

“That is unconscionable. That would be untenable. And that is something that this government is not prepared to do.”

On Sunday the Prime Minister said the government is looking at deporting foreign criminals as soon as they are sentenced. There are currently more than 10,000 people from overseas in the prison estate in England and Wales, a large number of them on remand awaiting trial or sentencing.

And Mr Burnham said he also wants to look at cases where people are serving indefinite sentences for public protection, many of who have been in prison for decades longer than their original sentence.

Asked whether a convicted criminal would be jailed in their homeland after being deported, Ms Davies-Jones said: “That would be for the determination of their country of origin.

“What we do know is that currently 10,000 foreign national offenders are taking up space within our criminal justice system, the vast majority of them on remand awaiting court dates. Our plan is to deport them on sentencing so that they don’t serve a day at His Majesty’s pleasure and at the taxpayer’s pleasure, the UK taxpayer, in our prisons.

“Because we need our prison places for British offenders.”

On Tuesday Justice Secretary Alex Norris will outline the changes to the Sentencing Act in the Commons. It comes after Mr Burnham voiced his frustration at having to release prisoners early, telling the BBC: “None of this is where we would want to be, and certainly no victim should be in this position, no bereaved family should be in this position. So that is just a given.

“And what I’ve had to do is make the best that I could of a very difficult situation. And what I can say to every person who’s been affected by this situation, and I know it will have caused a lot of anguish to people up and down the country, I can look them in the eye now and say I have turned over every stone, working with the Justice Secretary over the summer.

“We have worked hard to look at everything. But at this point in time, there is no further that we can go without risking new offenders coming through the court system, those guilty of the most serious offenders not being able to be sent to prison because the prisons are full. And I can’t allow that situation to arise either.”

Domestic Abuse Commissioner Dame Nicole said: “For victims of domestic abuse across the country, this announcement won’t bring reassurance. While it’s good to see more dangerous offenders exempt from this scheme, I remain deeply concerned about the number of abusers who will still be eligible for early release.

“This decision does not change the fact that victims and survivors will still be forced to take measures to protect themselves from dangerous abusers because the government and our criminal justice system cannot.”