Britain’s new Labour government plans to extend early release of prisoners from September to tackle a prison overcrowding crisis that a court has said threatens to create a “total breakdown of law and order.”
By early 2023, prisons in England were already 99% full. As of July 8, there were only around 700 places available for men, out of a total of 84,000.
“If we do not act now, we risk the collapse of the criminal justice system and the breakdown of public order,” the new Justice Minister, Shabana Mahmood, said Friday (12/7/2024), at HMP Five Wells prison, in central England.
According to the government, there will be no more places available in prisons “within weeks.”
Among the measures announced, prisoners who are eligible for early release under police control after serving half their sentence will be able to benefit from this measure sooner, after completing 40% of their sentence.
People sentenced to more than 4 years and those imprisoned for sexual crimes are not included in the toolkit. The new measures will only come into force in September and must be approved by Parliament.
New Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused the previous Conservative government of being responsible for the situation. “This is blatant irresponsibility on the part of a government that is leaving office,” he said from Washington, where he is attending a NATO summit.
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