Early release scheme ended
By Ian Dunt
The early prisoner release scheme will be halted, the justice secretary confirmed today.
Jack Straw told the Commons the scheme would be phased out by March 12th, with the last inmates freed on April 9th.
Shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve said the timing of the phase-out was suspicious.
“What in less than two weeks has rendered what was then practically impossible today possible?” he said in his Commons response.
“Could it be the timing of the end of the scheme, on March 12th, just weeks before an election is called, which only confirms our fears that the government is acting out of political desperation, not the national interest.
“Is the justice secretary talking tough on crime before the election, to make it tough on us after?”
The scheme was implemented during the height of the prisons crisis in the summer of 2007.
The Liberal Democrats suggested Labour should concentrate on making its prison policy more rational.
“The news that this ill-thought-out scheme is to be scrapped is welcome,” said Lib Dem justice spokesman David Howarth.
“But the real scandal is not just the offenders released early who commit more crimes – it is the sky-high levels of reoffending across the board.
“If the government were not so obsessed with filling our prisons with people who should not be there, such as drug addicts and the mentally ill, they would not be forced to let out dangerous criminals before they have served their sentence.”
Since the start of the scheme, in June 2007, just under 77,000 inmates were released up to 18 days earlier. To be eligible for the system, inmates had to be serving up to four years for a range of less serious offences.
