Mahmood: No option but to free 5,500 prisoners early amid jail capacity crisis

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has claimed the Government has “no option” but to release 5,500 prisoners early, with jails projected to be overflowing by September.

The temporary measures, which will see a reduction in the proportion of their sentence many prisoners must serve in jail from 50% to 40%, will be revised in 18 months’ time, Ms Mahmood said.

The Government also announced it will conduct a review into the prison capacity crisis to understand why “necessary decisions” weren’t made at “critical moments”.

A motion to approve the Criminal Justice Act 2003, requisite minimum custodial periods order 2024, will be brought before MPs on Wednesday July 25.

In a statement to the Commons on Thursday, Ms Mahmood said: “It is now clear that by September of this year our prisons will overflow. That means there is only one way to avert disaster.

“As the House knows, most of those serving standard determinate sentences leave prison at the halfway point, serving the rest of their sentence in the community. The Government now has no option but to introduce a temporary change in the law.

“Yesterday, we laid a statutory instrument in draft subjected to the agreement of both Houses. Those serving eligible standard determinate sentences will leave prison after serving 40% rather than 50% of their sentence in custody and the rest on licence.

“Our impact assessment estimates that around 5,500 offenders will be released in September and October.

“From that time, until we are able to reverse this emergency measure, 40% will be the new point of automatic release for eligible standard determinate sentences. The Government does not take this decision lightly, but to disguise reality and delay any further as the last government did is unconscionable.

“In a speech last week, I called the last occupants of Downing Street the guilty men. I did not use that analogy flippantly, I believe they placed the country in grave danger.

“Their legacy is a prison system in crisis, moments from catastrophic disaster. It was only by pure luck and the heroic efforts of prison and probation staff that disaster did not strike while they were in office.”

Ms Mahmood said the previous government’s custody supervised licence scheme will be stopped and a review into the prison capacity crisis will be undertaken, to look at “why the necessary decisions were not taken at critical moments” by the Tories.

Additionally, as part of the plans to reduce pressure on prisons, at least 1,000 new trainee probation officers will be recruited by the end of March 2025.

The Prisoner Governors’ Association said the previous government “dodged difficult decisions, kicking the can down the road at every opportunity and pushing the chronic, unresolved problems on to the newly elected administration”.

Shadow justice secretary Edward Argar branded the Government’s plans to reform the planning process with the aim of building more prisons as a “gimmick”.

The Tory former prisons minister said: “We set in train the biggest prison building programme since the Victorian era, over 13,000 additional prison places delivered in government, two new prisons open, one being built, two with planning permission, and one on the cusp of a decision.

“So I do have to say, her party’s planning permission proposal for prisons wouldn’t impact on any of these, in that respect it is simply a gimmick.”

He added he has “significant public protection concerns” over the announcement, adding: “Can she confirm that domestic abusers convicted of say common assault, as is often the case, would in fact not be exempt from this policy?”

In response, Ms Mahmood accused Mr Argar of attempting to “gloss over many, many years of failure on planning by the previous government”.

She added the Government has “taken every precaution and every option available to us to exclude sentences connected to domestic abuse”, including breaches of a non-molestation order, stalking, breaching of a restraining order and strangulation or suffocation.

Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Alistair Carmichael said “18 months is a very long time for temporary measures” regarding the prison capacity crisis.

The Orkney and Shetland MP warned: “There is a real danger to damaging public confidence in our criminal system if these measures were to be extended beyond that point.”

Ms Mahmood responded: “We have inherited a system in complete crisis and at the risk of total breakdown and collapse of the criminal justice system, it will take some time, by necessity, for us to be able to put that right.”

Problems facing Parc Prison in Bridgend, which saw 10 inmates die within three months, were raised by the Labour MP for Gower, Tonia Antoniazzi.

She said: “The previous government blamed the local culture of the community on the issues that were happening in the community of Bridgend – I certainly find that insulting.

“There is an issue over staff and the intimidation that they and their families have faced there.”

She urged Ms Mahmood to “reinforce and support” the prison and probation services at Parc Prison “to ensure the culture in the prison changes and people are safe”.

Ms Mahmood said she was “deeply concerned” about the situation at Parc Prison, adding she would be happy to meet with interested MPs about the issue and is monitoring the situation “very closely”.