Domestic violence victims to be in danger if prisoners let out two months early
Victims of domestic violence will be put at risk by the decision to release prisoners up to two months early, it has been warned.
Ministers have announced the emergency measure as the country runs out of spare jail cells. But there are concerns the probation service will not be able to cope with the growing number of early releases.
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Nicole Jacobs, said: “Plans to release prisoners on short sentences up to two months early could be dangerous for domestic abuse victims… Victims should not pay the price for prison overcrowding.
“There has been no transparent evaluation of the scheme’s impact on domestic abuse victims, nor the probation service’s ability to properly manage perpetrators.” She added: “I want to see a specific exemption of perpetrators of domestic abuse and stalking from this scheme.”
Amy Bowdrey, Policy and Public Affairs Officer at Refuge, said it was “deeply concerned” by the announcement and echoed the call for the exemption. “We know that there is a lack of understanding around domestic abuse within the criminal justice system, and that perpetrators are often given short custodial sentences that do not reflect the serious nature of their crimes,” she said. "The Government has claimed that the safety of women and girls is a priority for them, but yet again we are seeing VAWG ignored and overlooked in policy announcements.”
Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade
Ministers snuck out the news late on Monday evening in a bid to avoid negative headlines. Burglars and shoplifters will be among those to benefit. Sex offenders, convicted terrorists, category A prisoners and all violent offenders serving four or more years are excluded.
According to MoJ figures, the prison population stood at 88,220 as of March 8. The operational capacity is a little over 89,000. Prisons charity, the Howard League, states that the prison estate should not hold more than 79,597 people.
Labour said the extension of the early release scheme from 18 days to up to 60 days “will cause shockwaves and deep concern across our country”. Speaking in the Commons, Shadow Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: "Let us be in no doubt, this is the most drastic form of early release for prisoners that this country has ever seen.” She questioned how the probation service will be able to cope with monitoring an influx of early released offenders when any additional resource was “glaringly absent” from the Ministry of Justice’s announcement.
Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, also warned more support was needed to avoid a “catastrophic impact” of increased demand on the probation service. “Ministers must do all in their powers to ensure a prisons crisis does not morph into a probation crisis,” she said.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said he would "reset" probation to prioritise early engagement at the point where offenders are most likely to breach their licence conditions, but failed to commit new money to the service.
He also did not say domestic abuse perpetrators will be exempted from the new scheme. Mr Chalk told MPs that governors will be able to make a “gold command veto” to stop certain criminals being released.
"Where the governor has concerns about an individual that will be escalated to a panel with senior officials who will make a decision based upon what is that offender's history, what is the proposed bail address, what are the conditions that could be imposed - a not to contact, not to enter, for example, to abide by a curfew, to potentially be tagged,” he said.
"If the governor has concerns about safety, then that person will not be released. That is a safeguard that was not available under the Labour scheme which ran for three years (in 2007) and it is absolutely critical to prioritising public safety, that is our absolute focus."
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
