Releasing a number of prisoners early to ease prison overcrowding is a temporary measure, according to the Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Responding to a question during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, Mr Blair said he "regretted" the need to allow some prisoners to be released 18 days early to avoid a breach of prison condition regulations. He added that work was ongoing to provide an additional 9,500 prison places.<br><br>The Prime Minister said: "The number of people in prison has risen dramatically…the projection we got last year we have exceeded now, therefore we have to take this temporary measure.<br><br>"I hope this is very temporary measure but we have to do it. It is important we make sure we deal with violent and sexual offenders most severely – that is why there are 3,000 people in prison today on indeterminate sentences."<br><br>Plans to release some prisoners 18 days before their scheduled release date were announced on Tuesday by Lord Falconer, Secretary of State for Justice. Many prisoners approaching the end of their sentence will not be affected by the scheme, including those who have served terms of more than four years and foreign nationals listed for deportation.<br><br>The Conservatives laid into the news, David Davis accusing the Government of risking the safety of the public.<br><br>The Shadow Home Secretary said: "This is disgraceful and a direct consequence of the Government’s absolute failure to deal with the crises in our prisons … It is bad enough that the British public have been paying the £1m a week bill to keep offenders in court cells. Now they are going to pay with their safety." <br><br>"It was only recently that the Prime Minister said he had blocked this decision. So this is not a good start for Gordon Brown. Indeed, it is ironic that these measures are being taken now to clear the decks for Mr Brown, when it is the Chancellor himself who has caused the crisis by refusing to fund adequate prisons capacity.<br><br>"Gordon Brown is responsible for the prison crisis – he froze the Home Office budget and refused to allow extra prison places because he could not commission them through PFI, thereby keeping them off the balance sheet."<br><br>He added: "Last minute promises about extra places and un-detailed pledges on funding will not fool the public – especially when the Government has just cleared the decks for Mr Brown by authorising the release of 2,000 offenders early. It is clear from what has been announced that there will be a continuing reliance on police and court cells. This means the taxpayer will continue to pay through their pay packets. The Government’s poor record at preventing those released on licence from committing more crimes means they will also continue to pay with their safety."
And for the Lib Dems, Liberal Democrat Shadow Justice Secretary Simon Hughes called it ‘a final embarrassment for the departing Prime Minister’, "which undermines public confidence in criminal justice and does nothing to prevent reoffending across the country.
"Today’s overflowing prisons are a crisis which should have been predicted and avoided by each of Labour’s four Home Secretaries.
"Ministers cannot really think that the public believes that release on licence is anything other than early release by another name.
"It is time to end the madness of 10 years of failed policies which will see England and Wales, which already has the highest prison population in western Europe, still committed to building between 8,000 and 20,000 more prison places."
