Available prison cells for adult males in the UK “fell into double figures”, the Justice Secretary has claimed.
Shabana Mahmood told the annual judges’ dinner at Mansion House that, when she was appointed as Lord Chancellor in the summer, prisons were “weeks away from running out of space altogether” and, as a result, she decided to release some prisoners early.
About 1,100 inmates were due to be freed in a second wave of early releases that began on Tuesday under the Government’s policy to free up prison space.
She told attendees: “Prisons were not just in crisis, they were on the point of collapse. Weeks away from running out of space altogether.”
Referring to the disorder across Britain in the wake of July’s Southport stabbings, Ms Mahmood said that the “necessity of that decision” on early release “was soon apparent”, before adding: “At one point, the prison places remaining in the adult male estate fell into double figures.”
On Tuesday, Number 10 said that the Prime Minister “shares the public’s anger” at images of prisoners being released early.
Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said: “The Prime Minister shares the public’s anger at these scenes and thinks it is shocking that any government should ever inherit the crisis that this government has when it comes to our prisons.
“But just to be clear, there was no choice not to act. If we had not acted, we would have faced a complete paralysis of the system.”
He said this marks the “second and final” release of prisoners under the Government’s scheme.
Some inmates, like Daniel Dowling-Brooks, felt quite the opposite of the Prime Minister.
Dowling-Brooks told journalists covering the early prison releases “big up Keir Starmer” as he celebrated his newfound freedom with his friends, his mother, and his sister, who picked him up in a convoy of a white Bentley and black Mercedes G-Wagon outside HMP Swaleside in Kent.
The 29-year-old told reporters he had been in prison for seven years for kidnap and grievous bodily harm of someone who owed money to his friend and was leaving jail seven weeks earlier than planned.
He said the first thing he would do is “go to McDonald’s, go to my hostel and follow all the rules”.
Meanwhile, the Government plans to increase the maximum period eligible offenders can spend under house arrest from six months to 12 months, Ms Mahmood told MPs in the House of Commons yesterday.
She also said she would also address the soaring number of recalls – the return to prison of those released on licence or parole who break probation rules.
She said: “Later this month, I intend to review the risk-assessed recall review process so that lower risk cases can be considered for re-release after they have been recalled to prison for two to three months, where their further detention is no longer necessary to protect the public.”
The Government will also “accelerate” the deportation of foreign nationals, as opposed to imprisoning them in the UK, she said.
The Justice Secretary has also launched a review into sentencing that will look at handing out more punishments to offenders outside prison.
Tags are already being used to supervise and monitor offenders serving sentences outside prison but the review will consider bringing in emerging technologies used in other countries, Ms Mahmood said.
The prison population is increasing by 4,500 every year and the Government has committed to creating 14,000 additional prison spaces.
David Gauke, the former justice secretary who has argued that there is a strong case for abolishing most jail terms of six months or under, will chair the review panel.
He wrote that the “capacity crisis in our prisons has meant that, at the very least, we have no choice but to pause the increase in the prison population”, in an article in the New Statesman on Tuesday.
As part of the review, the Government will look to foreign jurisdictions for ideas, such as in Texas where authorities have used good behaviour credits.
Punishments outside prison could involve using wristwatches or apps that “nudge” offenders to ask if they have complied with licence conditions, in addition to sobriety tags or home detention curfews.
Community alternatives and fines instead of prison time will also be examined, as will the impact of short custodial sentences.
The review will also consider whether more can be done to tackle prolific offending and crimes committed against women and girls by drawing up sentences that reflect the severity of the act.
