The UK Labor government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer is releasing a further 1,100 prisoners in England and Wales because of overcrowding in the penitentiaries. Prisoners with sentences over five years are getting out with only 40 percent of their time served, The National Pulse reported Thursday. The policy is supposed to exempt prisoners in jail for serious crimes that involve violent assault, rape or terrorism but some murderers were already freed with the last expulsion. This move comes as anti-immigration protesters have been sentenced to prison time over online posts and riots after 3 children were stabbed to death in Southport in July by the son of African immigrants.
Labour Party Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood shared details about the initiative on BBC Radio 4, emphasizing rehabilitation over punishment. “Prison has a place, but we must also improve rehabilitation,” she said. The government needs its early release from prison policy to provide more room for those convicted of hate crimes. Starmer has labeled them “keyboard warriors” for supporting anti-mass immigration protests on social media and many have been sentenced to jail time. One of those in prison for shouting at police recently died in prison, a suspected suicide.
Starmer’s early release program is part of his plan to send people to prison for shorter periods so convicts could expect to serve only 40 percent and not 50 percent of their time incarcerated. The prime minister has noted that this would create 5,500 prison spaces. The number of people going to jail is increasing by about 4,500 each year.
The Labour government is also talking about expanding the prison system by another 14,000 spaces but Mahmood is open to alternative sentencing. “We have an opportunity now to reshape and redesign what punishment outside of a prison looks like,” she said, according to The Pulse. The last round of early releases was fraught with errors, with some prisoners getting out who were not supposed to. Other early parolees did not leave with the required security tracking devices. Many of those released are also being charged with breaching their release conditions, reportedly as high as 50 percent of those released in some part.
