2 days ago
Labour releasing prisoners serving 10 or more years early
Prisoners serving sentences of more than 10 years have been released early by Labour, it has been claimed.
Some 248 convicts sentenced to 14 years or more in prison and 490 criminals handed sentences between 10 to 14 years have been let out early under a scheme to reduce jail overcrowding, the Daily Mail reported.
In total, 26,000 inmates have been released early since Sir Keir Starmer became prime minister, according to the newspaper.
Within days of last year's general election Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, announced plans to release prisoners early to avoid what she said would have been a 'total collapse' of the system if left unaddressed.
Prisoners jailed for sexual offences, terrorism and serious violent crimes carrying more than four years in prison have been excluded from the scheme.
The newspaper's figures cover the period between September, when the early releases began, and March.
Some 3,500 prisoners are apparently being released early every month, or more than 150 each working day.
This means about 40,000 prisoners will have been released early by the end of this month if current trends continue.
A scheme to tackle overcrowding in prisons - introduced by the former Tory government - led to 13,325 offenders being released over 11 months, which is about one third of the rate being freed by Labour. Those inmates were let out up to 70 days early.
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, told the Daily Mail: 'The public are sick of soft justice. Instead of introducing emergency measures to let criminals out early, Starmer should change our broken human rights law so we can deport the thousands of foreign offenders clogging up our jails. These shocking statistics explain why Britain feels lawless.'
After the scheme began, 3,785 prisoners were freed in September and 5,366 in October, which included backdated releases.
Since then, an average 3,461 a month have been let out early - bringing the total to 26,456 by the end of March.
When the scheme began, one convicted drug dealer told The Telegraph being released early had made him a 'lifelong Labour voter'.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: 'This Government inherited prisons days from collapse and had no choice but to take decisive action to stop prisons overflowing and leave police unable to make arrests.
'Public protection is our number one priority. Offenders out on licence face strict conditions and will be brought back to prison if they break these rules.
'We are building 14,000 prison places and reforming sentencing so jails never run out of space again.'
