Victims will feel unnerved and bewildered by the Ministry of Justice announcement that those serving sentences of between one and four years can only be returned to prison for a fixed, 28-day period, the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, Baroness Newlove, has said.
She said: “It is the latest in a series of short-term, stop-gap measures prompted by chronic pressures on prison capacity. The cumulative effect has been to corrode confidence in the justice system and undermine victims’ sense of security.
“I find it difficult to understand why this specific group of offenders has been targeted for early release and I am concerned about the implications for victim safety. This cohort will either have committed sexual or violent offences or been assessed as posing an unacceptable risk of harm to the public. I will be seeking urgent clarity from the Lord Chancellor on how this policy will operate in practice – and what safeguards will be put in place to protect victims and uphold public trust.
“If the probation service, the Secretary of State and the Parole Board have all judged these individuals to pose a risk of harm to the public, then reducing time served on recall can only place victims and the wider public at an unnecessary risk of harm. I will be writing to the Secretary of State to raise concerns on behalf of victims. I hope the government will listen – and reconsider whether this is a responsible or proportionate way to address the current pressures on our prison estate.”
The Victims’ Commissioner raised similar concerns in response to previous early release announcements in July and September 2024, due to prisons operating at close to maximum capacity. In a letter to Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood, Newlove raised also worry about ‘the cumulative impact of these short-term, stop-gap measures on victim confidence in our justice system’.
Ms Mahmood made the announcement in a briefing at Downing Street about prisons on course to reach ‘zero capacity’ in November. At the briefing Amy Rees, the MoJ interim Permanent Secretary, said that the prison population is forecast to be more than 100,000 by 2029; compared with a current 88,087 – and the adult male estate is operating at about 99 per cent of its capacity.
Isabelle Younane, Head of External Affairs at the charity Women’s Aid spoke of hearing from member services about predatory perpetrators with a long history of domestic abuse being released early, only to reoffend within days.
For the charity Nacro, CEO Campbell Robb welcomed the Government’s announcement, while calling on the Government to ‘move beyond stopgap fixes to long-term solutions’ to avoid future crises. He said: “Recalling someone to prison for 28 days can still derail a person’s life; leading them to lose their job, their home and ties to family and community – all foundational blocks that reduce the likelihood that they will go on to commit further offences.”
