Labour leader Keir Starmer has accused the government of issuing a “jail out of free card” after the announcement of 70 days early release for prisoners.
The prison population has increased in recent decades and a scheme has been announced to tackle this problem of overcrowding in prison.
Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour party has argued against the scheme in parliament and has said that Rishi Sunak, should “consider the risk to children” in regards to the early release of stalkers and domestic abusers.
He claims that early releases could impact the UK significantly with crime rates like antisocial behaviour and other petty crimes increasing because of the scheme allowing them to be released early.
Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has reassured the public that “Nobody will be out on the scheme if they are deemed a threat”. Serious offences are exempt from this scheme and will not be eligible for the 70 days early release.
Rishi Sunak repeated that there is an “absolute governor lock” on prisoners eligible for the scheme. He announced that the “prison service has an absolute lock so no one is put on the scheme who shouldn’t be”.
Rishi Sunak claimed that the Labour party had “no plan for the country” and accused Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour party, of being “soft on crime, soft on criminals”.
The scheme will be introduced on the 23rd of May to tackle the problem in prisons.
The Minister of Justice stated that the prison estate “should not hold more than 79,072 people” however currently stats show that currently 8,619 men and women are held above the stated limit.
The Halifax organisation SWAP (Safe Welcome After Prison), works alongside ex-convicts in rehabilitating them back into society.
Joe Shaw from SWAP mentioned that the scheme could “potentially negatively impact our organisation SWAP with the backlog of prisoners needing assistance and the long waiting list”.
However she believes that “rehabilitation works and second chances should be given”. Even though the organisation helps ex-convicts, Joe mentioned that the organisation does not provide services for arson and sexual offences as the safety of workers comes first.
Joe further said that “ the organisation is worth every penny invested and every penny saves the community ten times from crimes and eases up the public services. SWAP aims to be able to help more ex-convicts with resettlement on release.