The UK’s new left-wing government released the first of thousands of prisoners early on Tuesday morning, with convicts saying they had been convinced to vote for the Labour Party for life after gaining their liberty.
Over 1,700 extra convicts are being released from UK prisons today, considerably more than would normally be let out in a typical day and nearly double as many who would end their sentences in a week in normal times, it is stated. If the government’s plan continues as advertised, the number of extra prisoners turned out onto the streets early, having served less than half of the court-ordered sentences, will rise to 5,000 in the coming weeks.
The new left-wing Labour government has spent much of its first months in power arresting people — most notably over the anti-child-stabbing and anti-mass-migration protests and riots — and with the already poor inherited state of the prison system, it is running out of space for new inmates. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood says the mass release of prisoners is a sign the government is “tackling the crisis head-on” and necessary to prevent a “total collapse of our criminal justice system that would leave the public less safe”.
Yet justice experts question the wisdom of the move. Speaking to the UK state broadcaster the BBC on Tuesday morning Martin Jones, chief inspector of probation, said offenders released are “almost bound” to be back in jail “within days or weeks” because “things will go wrong in the community”.
He remarked further: “Around about a third of people released from prison each year will be proven to have committed a further offence within a year… And then, of course, there’s a small risk that some of those offences will be serious, and whilst rare, that risk cannot be eliminated.” Meanwhile, chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said that it is “inevitable” some of these ex-convicts would use their new-found freedom to commit more crimes, reports The Times.
Former top government advisor Dominic Cummings reflected sardonically that with the rising number of convicted criminals on the streets, perhaps the only other demographic that might hope to benefit are former special forces troops now working in private security.
Particularly aggrieved by the release of the prisoners are their victims. In the case of convicted abusers being released from prison, the people they terrorised are typically warned in advance so they can take appropriate steps to fortify themselves mentally or to protect themselves. This is managed through victims liaisons units which, it is stated, have been totally overwhelmed in the past week.
Consequently, a number of previous victims have not been warned if their abuser is to be released today, The Guardian notes, stating there is a “sizable minority” who have not been contacted because the system is overwhelmed by the government starting to empty out the prisons.
As for the prisoners themselves, some were persuaded to speak to British broadcasters as they walked free this morning. Several outlets report a “party atmosphere” outside the prison gates. Meanwhile, The Daily Mail states two prisoners, one a convicted drug dealer and the other inside for aggravated burglary (burglary with a weapon), told the newspaper they had been convinced to vote for the Labour Party in future by the state’s policy to cut prison sentences.
Reporter Charlie Peters of GB News wrote of what he witnessed outside of His Majesty’s Prison Wandsworth: “One fresh ex-prisoner walks up to the crowd waiting outside, recognises one of his old cellmates, and lights up a joint [a marijuana cigarette, which is illegal in the United Kingdom] with him. Police are parked down the road watching on.”