‘Why haven’t more prisons been built?’: YEP readers react to early release plans

Readers have been sharing their views after the Yorkshire Evening Post reported on the early release of prisoners, with many questioning the policy and asking how the pressure on the prison system should be addressed.

The early release programme is part of a plan by the Government to free up space in prisons.

Under the scheme, some prisoners will have served just a third of their sentences, for crimes including domestic abuse and some sexual offences.

Comments on our Facebook page included concerns about public safety, the workload facing probation officers and whether more prison places should be provided.

Others argued that the policy should depend on the offence and the individual prisoner, while some questioned what alternatives are available while prisons remain overcrowded.

Keith Marlow asked: “Surely the early release of criminals from prison is totally ridiculous and does not need explaining.”

Meanwhile, Neil Whiting said: “Twenty years ago this week the government were talking about early release due to shortage of prison places.

“How come successive governments have never done anything about it? Surely more prisons could have been built in two decades.”

Teresa McCourt didn’t back the scheme and added: “They were given a sentence for a reason they should still do their full sentence.

“Yes prisons are over full but surely moving some to a army prison camp would be better then letting the out early. Then why doesn't the Government get some more built?”

Meanwhile Oliver Hemingway added it “depends on the offender in question” and said he believed some could benefit from appropriate support in the community.

Ryan Hinks added: “Should only be for those in cat d/open prisons only.”

Russell Chandler added: “Any violent criminals should not be released early.”

Speaking earlier this week Justice Secretary Alex Norris said: “We understand the anxiety victims face ahead of offenders’ release dates, but the greatest danger to victims would be prisons running out of cells for dangerous criminals, which was the crisis this Government inherited.

“Our plan will make sure this never happens again by building 14,000 prison places while subjecting offenders to the toughest-ever controls, leaving them nowhere to hide and under no doubt that we are watching them.”

The first releases coincided with the Justice Secretary being sworn in as Lord Chancellor at a ceremony at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London on the first day of the new legal year, where he vowed to the most senior judges in England and Wales that he would be “ambitious” in his bid to cut the backlog of court cases.

Meanwhile Kemi Badenoch yesterday pledged to deliver 50,000 new prison places by shrinking the overseas aid budget to £1 billion a year in a bid to end the early release of offenders.

The Tories said their plans would see the vast majority of extra spaces created over the course of a single Parliament and the full increase would be complete within seven years.