Andy Burnham has ordered a halt to the early release of prisoners in England and Wales, following weeks of pressure from Conservative MPs, victims’ families, and campaigners over the scheme’s treatment of violent and sexual offenders.
Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, had been among the most vocal critics, and responded to the pause by saying the U-turn raised more questions than it answered. He said Mr Burnham had “bowed to Conservative pressure” and “paused” Labour’s early release scheme, but added that there were “no details at all” about what the pause actually meant or what would happen next.
In a letter to Justice Secretary Alex Norris, Mr Timothy demanded to know how ministers could “pause” a scheme when the Sentencing Act itself imposes a “duty to release” offenders, with no exclusions for rapists, paedophiles, or killers, after Labour and the Liberal Democrats voted down Conservative amendments that would have created such exclusions.
Earlier in the week, before the full halt was announced, Mr Timothy had also pressed Mr Burnham publicly over his engagement with officials, asking why the Prime Minister, who said he wanted to stop the release of rapists and sex offenders due to begin on September 2, had “bothered to meet anybody from the Ministry of Justice.”
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, welcomed the pause but said it did not go far enough, arguing that Mr Burnham had only suspended part of the policy, pending yet another review. She said offenders were still being released early “today, every day,” and that the 40 per cent scheme, under which some prisoners can be freed after serving less than half their term, had already “cost Lewis Bell his life.”
The decision
Mr Burnham’s intervention came amid outrage over the prospect that two of Pc Andrew Harper’s killers, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, could be freed halfway through their 13-year sentences for his manslaughter. The Prime Minister said no prisoners would be released under the scheme until the Government had carried out an urgent review and “done everything we can to minimise risk to the public.”
The move reversed a position taken by officials as recently as Wednesday evening, when the Ministry of Justice had insisted the scheme would still proceed in September, when around 700 prisoners were due to be freed. By Thursday afternoon, Mr Burnham said he had instructed officials “to put a pause on the changes.”
Some 6,000 prisoners, including killers, rapists, and other violent offenders, had been set to be freed in monthly tranches from September 2, under a scheme that allows serious offenders to be released halfway through their sentences, rather than two-thirds of the way through, provided they have not committed serious breaches of prison rules. Offenders convicted of less serious crimes are eligible for release as little as a third of the way through their sentences.
Neither Downing Street nor the Ministry of Justice has set a date for when the scheme might resume, if at all, saying this will depend on the review’s outcome. Alex Norris, the Justice Secretary, declined to pre-empt the review, telling victims: “Give us a little bit more time.”
The wider Conservative campaign
Conservative pressure on the scheme predates this week’s events. Mr Timothy has previously described Labour’s early release scheme as “catastrophic,” warning that victims should not have to live in fear over the summer while waiting for a review, and that it would be “shameful” if the killers of Pc Harper, grooming-gang perpetrators, and rapists were released early under the plan.
David Gauke, the former Conservative justice secretary whose report on sentencing helped frame the scheme for Labour, said there might be scope for “narrowly focused” exemptions, for example for violent offenders who had attacked police officers, but cautioned that there was “no easy way to draw a line” without leaving some controversial cases unresolved or substantially increasing the prison population.
Alex Chalk, another former Conservative justice secretary, said Labour should never have made the sentencing changes retrospective, arguing this had “pulled the rug” from under victims, and that the rules should only have applied to people convicted after they came into force. He also argued that Britain would not resolve its prison overcrowding crisis without considering alternatives such as Australian-style dormitory prisons for lower-level offenders.
Reaction from victims and officials
Lissie Harper, Pc Harper’s widow, had earlier called it “deplorable” that releasing prisoners early was even being considered. Other cases, including that of Malcolm Waite, a driver jailed for killing Fenella Hawes while four times over the alcohol limit, and who was also scheduled for early release, added further pressure on ministers this week.
Mark Fairhurst, chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, backed calls for violent and sexual offenders to be exempted from the scheme, so that victims felt “justice has been served.” Prison governors and officers have separately warned that reversing expectations of early release could cause a backlash inside jails, with inmates who had expected to be freed for family events now facing disappointment.
Officials have warned that prisons in England and Wales will run out of space by November if the early release measures are abandoned altogether, underlining the scale of the dilemma facing ministers as they carry out the review.
