The Tories have been accused of letting prisoners out of jail in “secret” after quietly extending the length of an early release scheme by 10 days.
Offenders could be released up to 70 days early as the country runs out of spare prison cells. In March, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk confirmed an emergency extension of the early release scheme, which was introduced in October, to allow governors to let people out 35-60 days early.
But it emerged on Tuesday night that it has been extended again to 70 days as current measures have failed to ease the pressure in men’s prisons. The plan, known as the End-of-custody Supervised Licence scheme [ECSL], first intended to let people out 18 days early.
Shadow Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood branded the Government’s lack of transparency “shameless and frankly a disgrace” during an urgent question in the Commons, where she said ministers were “releasing prisoners but not the facts”.
“Never in this country has a government ever been forced to release prisoners over two months early,” she said. “This is the price that the public is paying for a justice system in crisis and a government in freefall.”
She laid into the Government for moving from releasing prisoners 18 days early just six months ago, to 60 days early in March – and now 70 days.
“Worst of all, the government is doing all of this in secret,” Ms Mahmood said. “They haven’t responded to any FOI [Freedom of Information] requests, parliamentary questions, or even the justice select committee with any useful details about this scheme.”
The Shadow Justice Secretary added: “The government is releasing prisoners but not the facts. The strategy is clear for all to see: say nothing, try and get away with it and get to the other side of the general election. It’s shameless and frankly a disgrace. The public and this House rightly expect the Minister to be transparent and honest.”
She demanded to know how many offenders have been released since the scheme became operational and whether the probation service has the time and resources to adequately assess the risk of releasing criminals early.
Chair of the Justice Committee Bob Neill said the early release scheme was “perfectly rational and sensible, pragmatic response to the pressures in prisons”, but echoed: “But I would ask him to reconsider the point about transparency of data precisely because it is a sensible thing to do, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t release the figures in greater time.”
He added that the pressures in our prison “stem from decades of underfunding by governments of all parties” and that prison is “not always the best means for lower level offenders”. He called for a “more intelligent debate about sentencing and the purpose of prison”.
Justice Minister Edward Argar claimed the extra ten-day extension was a “minor change” from what had already been announced. He said: “I know that many members of this house will be concerned about the early release of offenders in the community. But let me be clear that only offenders who would soon be released anyway would be considered for ECSL.
“We have put in place safeguards including that the prison service retains the discretion to prevent the ECSL release of any offender, where releasing them earlier presents a heightened risk than if they were released at their automatic release date. There are strict eligibility criteria and anyone convicted of a sexual offence a terrorist offence or a serious violent offence is ruled out. Public safety will always be our number one priority, and all those released will still be subject to probation supervision and stringent licence conditions.”
Mr Argar pointed out that Labour had a similar early release scheme between 2007 and 2010. It released 50,000 offenders over the three years however it remained as an 18-day early release.
He added: “We will publish the data on an annualised basis in the exactly the same way as we do for example on deaths in custody and supplementary breakdowns of the prison population.”