The Lord Chancellor’s actions today were essential. She is to be commended for taking the action others have shied away from. No one who has witnessed the appalling and often dangerous conditions in some of our prisons would not welcome this initiative. However, tomorrow’s headlines will probably be about the danger of releasing prisoners early, forgetting that the change in eligibility for release is only 10%, that there will be exclusions for sex offences, serious violence, some offences connected to domestic abuse and all related to national security. The government has also committed to keep this action under review and to recruit over 1,000 additional trainee probation officers by March next year. If they succeed this, coupled with the purposeful activity and training pioneered by Lord Timpson, will slowly but surely reduce recidivism and the prison population.
We cannot build our way out of this crisis but we can, as Norway did in the 1990’s, address it through ending short sentences and instigating enlightened regimes in our prisons.
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