Over 1,700 Prisoners Walk Free as Prisons Hit Breaking Point
1,750 criminals are set to walk free from UK prisons today, after serving a measly 40% of their sentences as the prison population has exploded to a record-breaking 88,521. There were fewer than 300 spaces left for male prisoners yesterday, prompting the government prepare to scramble towards a desperate “one-in, one-out” scheme…
Worryingly, a “high proportion” of those released are domestic abusers, with Chief Inspector of Probation Martin Jones predicting “around a third” of today’s fresh releases will reoffend. Homeless and jobless, they’ll be hitting the streets, adding to the chaos. So the problem won’t necessarily be solved…
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, as ever, was quick to point fingers at the Tories for leaving prisons with “no capacity” for having to release criminals after serving less than half their sentence. Conveniently, he forgets this was, in fact, a Tory policy—as Guido reported earlier this year. Meanwhile, the BBC are rolling live coverage from Wormwood Scrubs as prisoners start to be released in the next few hours. Not exactly the best optics for Labour…
