The new British government announced, on Friday (12), the early release of thousands of prisoners to relieve overcrowding in prisons, which are 99% occupied.
Just one week after taking power, Labour found itself forced to act on the dire situation in prisons, at the risk of no vacancies in the coming weeks.
As of the start of 2023, British prisons were 99% full. On 8 June, there were around 700 vacancies for men, out of a total of 84,000.
“Our prisons are on the verge of collapse,” new Justice Minister Shabana Mahmoud said as he announced the emergency action plan that includes the measure.
“If we do not act now, we risk a breakdown of the criminal justice system and public order riots,” a spokeswoman at HMP Five Wells in central England added.
According to Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor, the situation has reached an “absolute turning point”.
According to the government, there may be no more places available in prisons “within weeks”.
Among the announced measures, inmates who are entitled to early release under police control, after serving half of their sentence, will be able to benefit from this measure early, after serving 40% of their sentence.
Persons sentenced to more than 4 years in prison and those arrested for sexual crimes are excluded from this procedure.
The new measures will not come into effect until September.
New Prime Minister Keir Starmer has blamed previous Conservative governments for the situation.
“It was irresponsible on the part of the previous administration,” he said in Washington, where he attended a NATO summit in recent days.
“We knew we were going to have a problem, but the scale of the problem is worse than we thought,” he added.
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© AFP
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