AROUND 1100 prisoners have been released early as Labour launch a review into how to punish offenders outside of jail.
The UK Government said Tuesday’s liberations were the second and final tranche of emergency releases designed to ease pressure on England and Wales’s overcrowded prisons.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the Government wanted to “expand the use of punishment outside prison”.
Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme she added: “People still have to know that you are being punished for breaking the laws of our land, even if you’re not serving time in custody.”
Elsewhere, Mahmood (below) confirmed Labour remained committed to creating 14,000 extra prison places that the last Conservative Government “failed to deliver”.
The prison population is increasing by 4500 every year in England and Wales and the Justice Secretary said that “nobody can keep up with demand”. The Government expects numbers to reach critical capacity again by July.
A sentencing review was launched to coincide with the mass releases, which saw celebratory scenes outside some English prisons.
It will be chaired by former Tory justice secretary David Gauke (below) and aims to explore tougher punishments outside prison while making sure there is space to incarcerate the most dangerous offenders.
One place the Government is looking to for ideas is the US state of Texas where inmates can take a small number of days off their sentences by accumulating points for good behaviour such as undertaking drug rehabilitation or education programmes.
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.
Outside HMP Swaleside, Kent, Daniel Dowling-Brooks, 29, said “big up Keir Starmer” as he walked free after serving most of his seven-year sentence for kidnap and attacking someone in debt to his friend.
He said the first thing he would do is “go to McDonalds, go to my hostel and follow all the rules”.
On his crime Dowling-Brooks said he regretted it, adding he would now spend more time with his two children and his friends.
A 27-year-old who gave his name only has Harry, released from Wandsworth prison in London, told the PA news agency he had initially been sentenced for shoplifting a couple of years ago and had been released early last month.
Harry was then recalled to prison but released early a second time on Tuesday. He said: “Apart from being drunk and disorderly, and being a knobhead, I haven’t committed crimes that are worth going to jail for. It’s stupid.”
The Prime Minister’s spokesperson told reporters of Keir Starmer’s “anger” at the scenes of celebration outside prisons, adding: “There was no choice not to act. If we had not acted, we would have faced a complete paralysis of the system.”
