Newly installed Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Shabana Mahmood has been informed that only about 700 spaces remain in the male prison estate. If the day comes without intervention, these spaces are projected to reach full capacity by Aug. 1. Additionally, the British think tank the Institute for Government noted a 13 percent increase in the prison population over the past three years, with projections suggesting it could reach 99,300 by the end of next year.
As a temporary measure, a policy introduced last October permits the early release of some less serious offenders by up to 18 days, which was extended to 70 days in May. But then, the current situation needs more immediate action.
In an interview with BBC political editor Chris Mason a few weeks before the election, Starmer admitted that he could not “magic up a new prison on Friday morning” if elected prime minister.
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With that, Starmer is expected to authorize other options including early release and increased use of community sentencing. One proposal under consideration involves reducing the automatic release point for non-violent offenders from 50 percent to 40-50 percent of their sentence. This emergency measure targets prisoners serving terms of under four years for early release.
“I have to say it is shocking to have to inherit a problem like that. That our criminal justice system has gotten to a point where we’re releasing prisoners who should be in prison early and giving instructions to the police not to arrest in certain cases. That is how broken the system is. We have to pick that up and start the fix – not just a fix, but to renew and take forward,” Starmer told the BBC in an interview.
The current government clarifies that only lower-level offenders are eligible for early release, under strict supervision and conditions such as tagging and curfews. Serious offenders, including those convicted of sexual, terrorist or violent crimes, are exempt from early release.
New British prisons minister believes only a third of prisoners should be incarcerated
Aside from releasing non-violent offenders, Starmer also appointed James Timpson, a businessman known for his progressive views on criminal justice, as a new member of the House of Lords and the new prisons minister at the Ministry of Justice. Timpson, who has a history of employing ex-offenders through his shoe repair chain, has previously expressed that only a third of prisoners should be incarcerated.
In a February interview, Timpson described prison as a “disaster” for about a third of inmates, with another third “probably shouldn’t be there.” He criticized the current system for keeping too many people in prison for excessively long periods. He then compared this to an overemphasis on punishment rather than evidence-based approaches.
“We’re addicted to sentencing, we’re addicted to punishment,” he added.
Meanwhile, Starmer refrained from endorsing specific estimates but underscored the need for a more strategic use of prisons when questioned about the remarks at a Downing Street press conference.
“We do need to be clear about the way in which we use prisons. For so many people [who] come out of prison, they’re back in prison relatively quickly afterwards. That is a massive problem that we have in this country, that we do need to break,” he said.
Starmer then proposed establishing a network of “youth hubs” to tackle knife crime, and offer support to young people before they become entrenched in the criminal justice system.
“I’ve sat in the back of I don’t know how many criminal courts and watched people processed through the system on an escalator to go into prison. I’ve often reflected that many of them could have been taken out of that system earlier if they’d had support,” he said.
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