North East and Teesside charities call for other ways to tackle jail overcrowding

The next stage of an early release scheme is taking place today

Author: Karen LiuPublished 22nd Oct 2024

A Durham charity that supports a 'positive future' for prisoners and their families say an early release scheme is not a 'one stop solution'.

It comes as more than a thousand extra criminals are set to be free today, as part of the latest plans by the Government to tackle overcrowding in jails.

Amanda Lacey, chief executive of Nepacs, said: "It means that somebody's going to serve 10 percent less than the original time that was planned for them. I think we've got to always remember it's only applicable for certain offences, so I wouldn't want to people to get this sense of it's a bit of free-for-all and people are going to be released early from prison. There's an approach to this, it's planned and measured.

"What we don't want to happen is people getting released from prison earlier than expected with no support available to them and then they end up coming back into prison. So I think what's really important about this scheme is that it needs to be also in conjunction with adequate support being put in place prior to the release, on the actual day of release and following release.

"It feels like we either have really, really long term prison sentences which aren't effective and then short term sentences which you've got to question 'is that really necessary? Is there not another alternative?' considering who goes to prison, Why? How long for? What support have they got in prison and in the community?

"It's not just looking at the actual length of sentence, what this scheme does factor into that is what was the type of offence and this excludes a number of offences, which would be longer term but not all of them fall into those categories.

"Even if they're being released, they're still subject to license conditions, they still have to meet with probation, there's still a lot of scrutiny on these people and a lot of monitoring, so all of that is in place just to make sure that they don't go on and re-offend.

"If we're all doing our jobs correctly then that should help to prevent re-offending and making sure that person has the right support they need, being aspirational for the person that they have got another chance, they can come out, they can do things differently this time, maybe engage in other more positive things, positive relationships."

Richinda Taylor, chief executive of EVA Women's Aid in Redcar, said: "Some of the staff are quite concerned about it and some of the women that we are working with have some concerns that the perpetrators of abuse against them, that it'll impact them and they'll be coming out early, so we've had some extra work to do to assure them that we're there to support them.

"We all know that prisons are overcrowded, that the numbers in custody have been going up recently, so we do understand however it's not the only solution. I do hope that the Government are considering alternative methods of dealing with increasing numbers in prison estate."

She has this advice for victims who are concerned this might impact them: "Pick up the phone, contact us in some way at EVA, let's see if we can help you, let's see how we can support you and help you to find out the information that you need regarding the perpetrator of abuse against you. Give us that call, you're not committing yourself to anything by having that initial phone call and we'll help you if we can.

She added: "It's always a concern that when there is a new piece of legislation or a new rule that the impact on women reporting crimes is going to be negative, and that they'll adopt a 'why bother' point of view and I can understand why some victim do that if they've had negative experiences in the past."

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said:

“The new Government inherited a prison system on the point of collapse. It has been forced to introduce an early release programme to stop a crisis that would have overwhelmed the criminal justice system, meaning we would no longer be able to lock up dangerous criminals and protect the public.

“We’ve excluded sexual offences and a range of violent and domestic-abuse related offences from these changes and will also recruit over 1,000 new trainee Probation Officers by March 2025 to meet additional Probation Service demand.”

Minister says authorities 'as ready as we can be'

The authorities are "as ready as we can be" for the next stage of early inmate releases to ease the jail overcrowding crisis, a justice minister has said.

Speaking in Parliament, Lord Timpson pointed out although "not perfect", the implementation period for the emergency measure allowed steps to be taken to help reduce the risk of re-offending.

The Labour frontbencher made his remarks as around 1,100 inmates were due to be released on Tuesday as the policy, known as SDS40, was expanded to those serving sentences of five years or more.

It follows the first release of around 1,700 prisoners from jails across England and Wales on September 10.

This came after Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans in July to cut temporarily the proportion of sentences inmates must serve behind bars from 50% to 40% as the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said overcrowding had pushed jails to the "point of collapse".

A steady stream of eligible prisoners have been leaving jails under the changes ever since. The policy is expected to be reviewed within 18 months.

As the plan was rolled out, the prisons watchdog warned it was "inevitable" some would go on to re-offend as he branded the plan "risky".

Pressed at Westminster over the threat of re-offending, Lord Timpson said the time permitted to introduce the scheme "allowed prison and probation staff properly to prepare for release, helping us to reduce the risk of re-offending".

He added: "Planning for release includes having temporary accommodation for those at risk of homelessness, access to employment and continuity of mental health and substance misuse provision."

Lord Timpson pointed out those released under the measure would be subject to strict licence conditions.

He said: "If offenders break those conditions or commit further crimes, they will be punished and could be immediately recalled to prison."

The minister told peers: "We have inherited a system that is very difficult, in which far too many people are recalled. For the second SDS40 stage, we are as ready as we can be."

But he added: "With the SDS40, we have had more time to plan these releases. While eight weeks is not perfect, it is far better than the previous early release scheme - so we are confident that these links are there and are working.

"One thing that I am confident of, having been around prisons for so long, is that, when you have prisons that are so full, it is difficult to make everything work as well as it should do."

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