UK releases thousands of prisoners early from its jails

Early release of prisoners began in Britain on Thursday as authorities try to relieve overcrowded jails. In the first stage, 700 convicts serving sentences of up to 19 months left prison, and in the coming months around 4,500 more people are expected to be freed, including those given unconditional terms of more than 12 years for serious crimes.

Prisons on the brink of overcrowding

Britain’s justice system has been in crisis for several years now, made worse by a shortage of prison places. According to the Ministry of Justice, the country’s prisons were at 98.2% capacity on Monday, and without decisive measures they would have been completely full by as early as November. The solution proposed by the authorities, and the way it is being carried out, has drawn a wave of criticism from several directions at once.

Straight from prison onto the street

Probation service staff and victims’ rights organizations warn that the system is not ready for the mass return of convicts into society: for a long time now, the sector has lacked both money and staff. The main problem is a shortage of housing for people leaving prison. “We’ve got only a handful of places for former prisoners, and they’re full. Right now we’re looking at a scenario where some people will have to be released straight onto the street,” a probation service source told a British newspaper. Experts warn that this situation could make it harder for released prisoners to turn their lives around and could see them back behind bars before long. Monitoring remains a weak point too: according to a watchdog report published this week, some convicts wait up to five months for an electronic tag to be fitted.

The victims of the offenders being released are also watching events unfold with alarm. British resident Claire Milne said her ex-husband, Robert Dales, was sentenced in March to three years in prison for coercive control and possessing an offensive weapon, and that authorities have now told her he will be released early. “I’m afraid he’ll come after me. I don’t want to die,” she admitted, adding that she had been in a very high-risk domestic abuse relationship and knows exactly what he’s capable of, because she lived through it herself.

Government: there was no other way out

The British government says it had no choice: it inherited a prison system on the verge of collapse, and without early release the country risks ending up in a situation where detainees simply cannot be sent to prison at all. “It’s clear that the level of anxiety, and perhaps anger, will be high. We have to be honest: there is no good solution here — we’re faced only with a series of very difficult decisions that have to be made,” said Chancellor James Murray. Prime Minister Andy Burnham narrowed the number of convicts covered by the programme from an original six thousand, excluding, among others, those found guilty of manslaughter and grooming-related offences, as well as those who caused or contributed to a child’s death. The programme also does not apply to life sentences, which are handed down for the most serious crimes, such as murder.

Discontent in the European Union

Britain’s European allies are also outraged by the authorities’ actions. According to diplomatic sources in the EU, European countries are concerned that their citizens will be returning home without advance notice, and that London is not providing enough information. “Sending convicts back without any warning at all is very risky. British authorities keep saying they can’t inform us, but there has to be at least some interaction between police structures to give advance notice of releases like this,” one of the diplomats noted.

According to Britain’s Ministry of Justice, foreign nationals make up about 12% of all prisoners in the country, most commonly Poles, Romanians and Albanians. Anand Menon, director of the UK in a Changing Europe research institute at King’s College London, believes the current early-release programme could become a new obstacle on the path to closer ties between Britain and the European Union. The situation complicates an already difficult moment: Prime Minister Andy Burnham said this week that he would like to explore ways of rebuilding London’s ties with Brussels, and even named Britain rejoining the EU as one option — although that would require the unanimous agreement of all member states, and the bitterness left by Brexit has not faded in many of them. One diplomat warned that if someone released under the programme commits a serious crime in an EU country, it could spark a major diplomatic conflict.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz