“This means increasing and improving dedicated housing and approved premises for people released from prison so that nobody is released at risk of homelessness, especially for particularly vulnerable groups like women, older prisoners, and those with complex health needs.
“Effective employment and training programmes for recently released prisoners are also an impactful way of turning them away from crime for good. Experts know that investment in these areas will result in fewer victims, reduced crime, and many more able to fully grasp the opportunity to successfully rebuild their lives as members of the community.”
Labour’s early release scheme comes as Charlie Taylor, chief inspector of prisons, criticised leaders for failing to act on projected prison rises from as far back as 2018 to prevent the overcrowding crisis.
Taylor found the prison population increased 4% with a rise of 3,497 prisoners in the year up to March this year. There were just 1,098 usable spaces across male and female prisons last week with an occupancy rate of 98.7%.
“Despite projections as far back as 2018 predicting this rise, successive governments have failed to build enough capacity to keep pace,” said Taylor, who also blamed a trend to increase the length of prison sentences going back to the 1990s.
He added: “New ministers have already made, and will continue to have to make, urgent decisions about the prison population. With the number of prisoners projected to grow by as much as 27,000 by 2028, it is unlikely to be possible to build enough new accommodation.
“Most jails already fail to give prisoners enough to do and population increases are likely to make things worse. If prisoners leave prison without having learnt the skills and habits that will help them to hold down a job, if they are not being taught to read, if they are being sold drugs without support to break their addiction and if they continue to live in environments in which violence is commonplace, prisons will fail in their duty to prevent future reoffending.
“Alongside decisive short-term action, there is a pressing need for a much bigger conversation about who we are sending to prison, for how long and what we want prisoners to do while they are inside.”
In response, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said the early release of prisoners would “give the government time to set about long-term change in the prison system”.
“The chief inspector’s report lays bare the stark reality in our prisons, and the dire situation we inherited.
“This government will tackle the crisis head on and today, changes will come into force to prevent a total collapse of our criminal justice system that would leave the public less safe.”
Ministry of Justice figures already show a 31% rise in people coming out of prison homeless in the past year, mainly into rough sleeping.
The prisons watchdog raised concerns that 30% of prisoners released at Bedford prison fell into homelessness while 42% ended up in unsustainable accommodation.
The Big Issue previously reported that hundreds of prisoners could end up being released into homelessness.
Nacro’s Campbell Robb told the Big Issue that the government risks “swapping a prison crisis for a homelessness crisis” if its early release scheme is not handled correctly.
Catch22, a charity supporting prisoners, said it will be providing prison leavers in London with extra support to prevent reoffending and homelessness. The not-for-profit said its workers will be meeting people at prison gates as well as providing a basic support package and making referrals to support services.
Matt Randle, director of justice at Catch22 said: “The SDS40 early release scheme is a vital step to help ease the pressures on our prison system.
“We know that its limiting factor will be whether support in the community is robust enough to ensure that individuals resettle effectively and avoid falling into the revolving door of recall and reoffending.”
Chief inspector Taylor warned the rates of assaults, self-harm and suicides all remained high or increased over the past year and that drugs thrown over the wall or passed through the gate of institutions were a common cause of violence bullying and debt.
Official Ministry of Justice safety data indicated a 20% increase in reported rates of violence across adult male prisons in 2023. A third of male prisoners told inspectors it was easy to get illicit drugs with the same true for a fifth of female prisoners.
The number of self-inflicted deaths in adult men’s prisons also rose 27% between 2022 and 2023 with self-harm rates up 24% among male prisoners and 11% in female institutions.
Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “The brutalising conditions spelled out in this report show why criminal justice reform must be a priority for the new government.
“While the capacity crisis has attracted significant media attention, the inspectors’ findings reveal what is actually going on behind bars. And although the early release scheme starting today will ease some pressure and buy a little time, more action will be needed to achieve a lasting solution.
“The situation in prisons and probation requires a complete reset.”
The watchdog also raised the alarm over conditions in immigration detention, citing “a worrying rise in disturbances as the population grew”.
The most serious disturbance saw 50 detainees refuse to return to their cells in protest at no date for their release with 13 going on to escape.
The report identified “increasingly prison-like conditions” at Yarl’s Wood with the safety of detainees and access to activities “deteriorating significantly”.
Taylor also criticised slow decision-making from the Home Office for adding to anxiety to detainees and also questioned why so many were there in the first place when there was no reasonable possibility of deportation.
A Home Office spokesperson said the department is “committed to improving immigration detention facilities and will carefully consider the findings of this report”.
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