Advertisement
Social Justice

Everything Labour must do to fix broken prison system as early release scheme gets underway

Around 1,700 prisoners will be released early in England and Wales to ease overcrowding as damning prisons watchdog criticises governments for failing to act

The government has been warned it must invest in long-term prison reforms at next month’s autumn budget to ensure “the crisis never happens again” amid early releases and a scathing assessment from the prisons watchdog.

Around 1,700 prisoners will be released early in England and Wales on Tuesday (10 September) after serving 40% of their sentences in a bid to ease overcrowding. Sentences for serious violent offences of four years or more, as well as sex offences will be automatically excluded.

Tyrone Steele, deputy legal director at law reform charity JUSTICE, told the Big Issue the emergency measures are intended to offer breathing space in the short-term. 

Ongoing pressures, including the impact of the summer’s far-right riots, mean prisoners are likely to be released early again in the future without long-term reforms, leaving prison leavers at risk of reoffending and homelessness.

“We all want safe, healthy communities. But our broken prison system wreaks lives, boosts crime, and costs vast sums of public money,” said Steele. “Releasing people earlier helps to relieve the immediate pressure but a lack of proper support for those released will increase their chances of ending up back in prison. The government must introduce long-term reforms which ensures this crisis never happens again.

“To properly solve this crisis, the government must use the upcoming budget as an opportunity to build back vital basics such as the probation service, mental health care, and youth centres to give people real routes away from offending.

Advertisement
Advertisement

“This means increasing and improving dedicated housing and approved premises for people released from prison so that nobody is released at risk of homelessness, especially for particularly vulnerable groups like women, older prisoners, and those with complex health needs.

“Effective employment and training programmes for recently released prisoners are also an impactful way of turning them away from crime for good. Experts know that investment in these areas will result in fewer victims, reduced crime, and many more able to fully grasp the opportunity to successfully rebuild their lives as members of the community.”

Labour’s early release scheme comes as Charlie Taylor, chief inspector of prisons, criticised leaders for failing to act on projected prison rises from as far back as 2018 to prevent the overcrowding crisis.

Taylor found the prison population increased 4% with a rise of 3,497 prisoners in the year up to March this year. There were just 1,098 usable spaces across male and female prisons last week with an occupancy rate of 98.7%. 

“Despite projections as far back as 2018 predicting this rise, successive governments have failed to build enough capacity to keep pace,” said Taylor, who also blamed a trend to increase the length of prison sentences going back to the 1990s.

He added: “New ministers have already made, and will continue to have to make, urgent decisions about the prison population. With the number of prisoners projected to grow by as much as 27,000 by 2028, it is unlikely to be possible to build enough new accommodation.

Advertisement

“Most jails already fail to give prisoners enough to do and population increases are likely to make things worse. If prisoners leave prison without having learnt the skills and habits that will help them to hold down a job, if they are not being taught to read, if they are being sold drugs without support to break their addiction and if they continue to live in environments in which violence is commonplace, prisons will fail in their duty to prevent future reoffending. 

“Alongside decisive short-term action, there is a pressing need for a much bigger conversation about who we are sending to prison, for how long and what we want prisoners to do while they are inside.”

In response, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said the early release of prisoners would “give the government time to set about long-term change in the prison system”.

“The chief inspector’s report lays bare the stark reality in our prisons, and the dire situation we inherited.

“This government will tackle the crisis head on and today, changes will come into force to prevent a total collapse of our criminal justice system that would leave the public less safe.”

Ministry of Justice figures already show a 31% rise in people coming out of prison homeless in the past year, mainly into rough sleeping.

Advertisement

The prisons watchdog raised concerns that 30% of prisoners released at Bedford prison fell into homelessness while 42% ended up in unsustainable accommodation. 

The Big Issue previously reported that hundreds of prisoners could end up being released into homelessness.

Nacro’s Campbell Robb told the Big Issue that the government risks “swapping a prison crisis for a homelessness crisis” if its early release scheme is not handled correctly.

Catch22, a charity supporting prisoners, said it will be providing prison leavers in London with extra support to prevent reoffending and homelessness. The not-for-profit said its workers will be meeting people at prison gates as well as providing a basic support package and making referrals to support services.

Matt Randle, director of justice at Catch22 said: “The SDS40 early release scheme is a vital step to help ease the pressures on our prison system.

“We know that its limiting factor will be whether support in the community is robust enough to ensure that individuals resettle effectively and avoid falling into the revolving door of recall and reoffending.” 

Advertisement

Chief inspector Taylor warned the rates of assaults, self-harm and suicides all remained high or increased over the past year and that drugs thrown over the wall or passed through the gate of institutions were a common cause of violence bullying and debt.

Official Ministry of Justice safety data indicated a 20% increase in reported rates of violence across adult male prisons in 2023. A third of male prisoners told inspectors it was easy to get illicit drugs with the same true for a fifth of female prisoners.

The number of self-inflicted deaths in adult men’s prisons also rose 27% between 2022 and 2023 with self-harm rates up 24% among male prisoners and 11% in female institutions.

Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “The brutalising conditions spelled out in this report show why criminal justice reform must be a priority for the new government.

“While the capacity crisis has attracted significant media attention, the inspectors’ findings reveal what is actually going on behind bars. And although the early release scheme starting today will ease some pressure and buy a little time, more action will be needed to achieve a lasting solution.

“The situation in prisons and probation requires a complete reset.”

Advertisement

The watchdog also raised the alarm over conditions in immigration detention, citing “a worrying rise in disturbances as the population grew”.

The most serious disturbance saw 50 detainees refuse to return to their cells in protest at no date for their release with 13 going on to escape.

The report identified “increasingly prison-like conditions” at Yarl’s Wood with the safety of detainees and access to activities “deteriorating significantly”.

Taylor also criticised slow decision-making from the Home Office for adding to anxiety to detainees and also questioned why so many were there in the first place when there was no reasonable possibility of deportation.

A Home Office spokesperson said the department is “committed to improving immigration detention facilities and will carefully consider the findings of this report”.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us moreBig Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Change a vendor's life this Christmas

This Christmas, 3.8 million people across the UK will be facing extreme poverty. Thousands of those struggling will turn to selling the Big Issue as a vital source of income - they need your support to earn and lift themselves out of poverty.

Recommended for you

Read All
Winter fuel benefit cuts will send pensioners to hospital, DWP warned: 'It's a political choice'
a view from above of an older person with white hair eating out of a pot
Winter fuel payment

Winter fuel benefit cuts will send pensioners to hospital, DWP warned: 'It's a political choice'

Ghosts star Charlotte Ritchie: 'It's a tragedy people can't afford their essentials'
Charlotte Ritchie at Trussell food bank
Food banks

Ghosts star Charlotte Ritchie: 'It's a tragedy people can't afford their essentials'

Is the cost of living crisis over and will prices in the UK ever come down?
Cost of living crisis

Is the cost of living crisis over and will prices in the UK ever come down?

'This cannot go on': Hundreds of thousands of people turning to food banks for the first time
food bank
Food banks

'This cannot go on': Hundreds of thousands of people turning to food banks for the first time

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue