Labour’s Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has just refused – yes, flat-out refused – to tell the British public how many of the prisoners she released early are now back behind bars.
She admits that the recall rates are “very high” but, in typical Labour fashion, insists she won’t “get ahead” of the statistics.
But hang on a second – while she dithers with the numbers, today she’s releasing another 1,000+ criminals early, after serving a meagre 40% of their sentences.
I ask you: what fresh horrors await us when these prisoners are let loose? What crimes will they commit before inevitably being sent back to the slammer? Who will be the victims this time?
what fresh horrors await us when these prisoners are let loose? What crimes will they commit before inevitably being sent back to the slammer? Who will be the victims this time?
It’s an absolutely staggering display of negligence, especially when you consider that this same mad Labour Government is still locking up people like Lucy Connolly – a political prisoner of this dystopian regime – for a solitary post on social media. Meanwhile, drug dealers, paedophiles, and violent offenders are walking free. Is this what justice looks like in 2024? Can anyone explain how this is even remotely acceptable?
Now, let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Ms Mahmood says that although the recall rates are “high,” it somehow “shows the system is working.” I mean, is she mad? Working? What she’s actually telling us is that the system is an utter farce. Martin Jones, the chief inspector of probation, suggests that recall rates are running between 250 and 300 prisoners a week. So, we’re talking about hundreds of offenders being sent back behind bars every week because they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, abide by their early release conditions. So that’s basically about 56 out of every 100 prisoners released early being recalled. That, Justice Secretary Mahmood, is not a sign of success. It’s a flashing red light, warning us that these people should never have been released in the first place.
And it gets worse. Ms Mahmood is now proposing to make it even easier for offenders to be re-released after breaching their licence conditions. At the moment, it can take up to a year for the parole board to make a decision. And what’s her genius solution? Speed up the process, making it easier to put these offenders back on the streets again. For heaven’s sake, how many more times do we need to make the same mistake before we admit that this is a disaster waiting to happen?
Here’s an idea – and it’s one that seems glaringly obvious to anyone not blinded by ideology. Instead of releasing criminals early, why not start by deporting the 10,000+ foreign criminals currently clogging up our jails? That’s 10,422 inmates, costing us an eye-watering £51,724 per prisoner, per year. Do the maths, folks. That’s £539 million a year – over half a billion pounds of British taxpayers’ money being wasted on criminals who shouldn’t even be here. Deport them, free up space in our prisons, and keep the dangerous criminals who belong behind bars exactly where they belong. It’s simple, it’s logical, and it’s what any sensible government should be doing right now.
That’s £539 million a year – over half a billion pounds of British taxpayers’ money being wasted on criminals who shouldn’t even be here. Deport them, free up space in our prisons, and keep the dangerous criminals who belong behind bars exactly where they belong.
But no, instead, this Government is prioritising releasing more prisoners – people convicted of serious crimes – back into our communities. And then, when they inevitably reoffend or breach their licence conditions, we’re told that the system is somehow “working.” Well, I don’t know about you, but I find that rather hard to swallow.
It’s high time this Labour Government got its act together and stopped playing fast and loose with people’s safety. The public has a right to know exactly how many of these early release prisoners are ending up back in jail, and more importantly, why they’re being released in the first place. Until then, Ms Mahmood’s silence on the matter speaks volumes – and none of it is good news for the British public.
If this is what passes for justice under Labour’s watch, I shudder to think where we’ll be in another year’s time. It’s time for a bit of common sense, time to keep criminals off the streets, and time to stop this disastrous experiment with early release. The safety of the British people must come first.
Claire Bullivant, Editor
Claire is the founder and editor of the Conservative Post and was a co-founder of the Conservative Democratic Organisation. Claire is now setting up www.GreatBritishPAC.com. Pre-register today.
Main Photo: Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood ©House of Commons. Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) licence
