They Are Throwing Open The Prison Gates!
In my post on the imminent release of two thousand criminals yesterday, I said they “might as well just throw open the prison gates.” It appears that that is precisely what they are going to do!
“Up to 25,000 prisoners a year will be released early under an emergency scheme announced yesterday to ease the jail overcrowding crisis.
The plan to free prisoners early… was forced on ministers after the prison population reached a record of 81,016…
The prisoners, who will be released 18 days early, will be those serving sentences of between four weeks and four years for non-sexual and non-violent crimes… Up to 25,000 could be freed early in any one year. The prison population will fall by 1,200.” (The Times)
I am absolutely shocked that they can justify releasing 25,000 criminals every year before they have served their sentence. That really does make an absolute mockery of our criminal justice system. What’s the point in sentencing criminals to prison terms that they won’t even serve?!
The Ministry of Justice is, as one of it’s first acts, making an absolute mockery of our entire justice system. What is the point of a Ministry of Justice which prevents justice/the law from taking it’s course?
If we are short of prison spaces, as we certainly appear to be, then build another prison! It’s really not rocket science*! Instead of releasing criminals before they have served their sentence, build somewhere else to keep them. That is common sense and the only way to make the justice system into something other than the laughing stock the MoJ is already making it into - after just five weeks in existence!
* or, rather, aerospace engineering
Source: The Times, The Telegraph
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As I have said on my blog a few days ago they already did this in October 2005 (but not on the scale they are planning) and in October 2006 we found that more than 1000 crimes had been committed by those that had been released early.