Concerns have been raised that the left-wing Labour Party government’s plan to release some 1,700 prisoners this week could lead to outbreaks of gang warfare and domestic abuse survivors may once again be victimised.
In a bid to deal with the prison overcrowding crisis in Britain, which has been exacerbated by the government’s hard crackdown on recent anti-mass migration riots, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to release around 1,700 prisoners this week.
According to a report from the Daily Mail, prison bosses are seeking to “carefully choreograph” releases on Tuesday to prevent members of rival gangs from coming into immediate contact and therefore prison bosses will attempt to stagger their release as they are freed back onto the streets of Britain.
It comes as the government lowered the required time spent behind bars for some offenders to just 40 per cent of their sentence, down from the previous standard of at least 50 per cent. Although this will not impact serious offenders such as murderers, rapists, and terrorists, domestic abusers will reportedly be among those set free this week.
The Times of London reported that a government insider admitted that a “high proportion” of those freed this week will be domestic abusers.
While the government sought to limit such releases by excluding those serving sentences for crimes such as stalking, non-fatal strangulation, harassment, or those with a restraining order, domestic abusers convicted of crimes not specifically tied to domestic abuse will likely be set loose.
The government’s domestic abuse commissioner, Nicole Jacobs, said that around a third of domestic abuse victims will likely not be informed that their attackers are to be set free, warning that this could lead to further attacks, as the perpetrators are often aware of their victim’s home or work address.
“There’s no doubt the government has done their best to mitigate these risks but it’s very obvious the risk is still there and particularly for domestic abuse, in my view,” she said.
“We must ensure that victims aren’t lost in the shuffle of the changes that are being made in the prison release schemes and the perception of justice and fairness.
“Victims of domestic abuse are very focused on those release dates, it causes them sleepless nights, they will change so much of their daily activities knowing that their perpetrator is being released, the uncertainty of not knowing if that person will comply with licensing conditions and of release. This is incredibly stressful in the normal situation so for those dates to change unexpectedly or without them knowing that is a huge consequence for them to pay.”
There are currently some 88,521 people incarcerated in British jails, the highest figure since records began in 2011. In large part as a result of the crackdown on those involved in last month’s anti-mass migration riots, the prison population has jumped by 1,025 over the past month.
While the immediate focus has been on releasing prisoners early to free up space, the government has faced calls to increase the number of deportations of foreign criminals in British jails. As of the end of March, there were 10,422 foreigners serving prison sentences, or around 12 per cent of the entire prison population.
Former Margaret Thatcher advisor Piers Pottinger said in July: “One thing we could do which Labour has not mentioned is simply deport foreign criminals, of which there are a large amount… We should deport them back to their own countries instead of let them clog up our own prisons.”
