Shabana Mahmood has admitted dangerous criminals could be released early (Image: PA)
Violent criminals serving long prison sentences could be let out early under Labour’s sentencing overhaul, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has admitted. Ms Mahmood backed Labour’s sentencing tsar, David Gauke, when he said dangerous offenders “will have to be released sooner if we are serious about not exceeding capacity.”
This could mean violent inmates locked up for many years, such as those convicted for manslaughter, will get out of prison early. Mr Gauke, who is carrying out a sentencing review for the Government, also admitted the changes would be “controversial” and “difficult”. And Ms Mahmood said ministers cannot prevent a repeat of the prison overcrowding crisis by only releasing more criminals on “shorter sentences”.
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Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood being given a tour at HMP Millsike (Image: PA)
Ministers are battling a prison crisis (Image: PA)
Speaking as she opened a new prison in North Yorkshire, the Labour Justice Secretary said: “I'm not going to get ahead of the formal final recommendations of the sentencing review itself.
“I'll wait until I get those and then I'll make my decisions about which of the recommendations I want to pursue.
“But one thing is clear. We are already running back over 99% capacity in the prison estate.
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“So, we're not going to get to a position of sustainable prison capacity, including with this new build as we're seeing now, with simply just action on shorter sentences.
“It's for the review to obviously look at the details as to how that might work and then ultimately it'll be for me to consider which of those recommendations I want to take forward.
"But short sentence reform on its own isn't going to be enough.
“We’re already over 99% capacity. We are filling prison spaces as fast as we can build them, and we know already we cannot build our way out of this crisis, even though we are also building at the same time.”
Ms Mahmood did however say she was “sympathetic” to the new campaign, backed by Sarah Everard’s parents, to lock up the worst murderers and sex offenders for life.
Marketing executive Sarah Everard, 33, was kidnapped, raped and murdered by serving police officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021.
Ms Mahmood said: “I think it's an important campaign. The Prime Minister signalled that he was very happy to meet with the families that were involved in that campaign.
“And our minister, Alex Davis Jones, has already met with them and had a very positive conversation.
“It's not a question of who is right or wrong, actually, it's a question of making sure we have a prison system that ensures dangerous offenders are locked up and make sure that there are places for them to be locked up in.
“When I came into office, we were about to run out of prison places.
“In the summer of last year, we had fewer than 80 prison places across the whole of England and Wales.
“That is a broken system on the verge of collapse and it serves absolutely nobody.
“We have to make sure that there is always a prison place available for people who are dangerous offenders and who must be locked up.
“And on that, I will have common cause with victims such as those who are involved in this campaign.”
Ms Mahmood, speaking as she opened a new 1,500-inmate jail near York, insisted “prison is first and foremost a punishment”.
But she declared: “We must make greater use of tough, effective punishment outside prison for those who aren’t a risk to the public.
“In 2007, the Texans faced a challenge much like ours. Their prison population was high and rising.
“And they simply could not build enough prisons to keep pace. So, rather than throw billions of dollars at jails that would take decades to build, they got smart.
“Outside prison, they ramped up community punishment, with tough sentences that forced criminals onto strict rehab programmes.
“Inside prisons, they did things differently too. Lawmakers introduced a good behaviour programme, which now sees prisoners earn time off their sentence if they stick to the rules…Stay off drink and drugs, cut out the violence and, I think most importantly, take part in compulsory work programmes that prepare them for life on the outside.
“This ‘tough and smart’ approach has had remarkable results.
“Reoffending rates fell to just 20% – lower than the rest of the United States, and lower than we see here too.
Shabana Mahmood visited a new prison on Thursday (Image: PA)
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“Crime fell by nearly a third, reaching its lowest level since the 1960s. And all this happened while the prison population fell by 20,000 when it had been projected to rise by around the same figure.
“After two decades, rather than build new ones, the Texans had closed 16 of them. It’s an approach I want to see more of here.”
There are fewer than 800 spare beds in the entire male estate, with some 83,806 inmates behind bars in England and Wales. The prison service has a capacity of 84,589 for adult men, the Ministry of Justice says.
The new HMP Millsike, the size of 39 football pitches, includes reinforced barless windows to deter drone activity, hundreds of CCTV cameras, and X-ray body scanners to spot and stop contraband entering the prison.
It includes 24 workshops and training facilities to help convicts find a job when they are released.
Ms Mahmood said of the new facility: “Millsike is also designed to get offenders to turn their backs on a life of crime.
“Yes, prisoners must be punished – on that, I have always been clear.
“But prisons must rehabilitate too. Prisoners at Millsike will often be at the end of their sentences and they won’t be able to idle away their time away here.
“Instead, they will be given the tools to turn their lives around.
“With 24 workshops across this jail, 500 offenders can work at any one time.
“These will equip offenders with proper training, to gain the skills that employers need because we know ex-offenders are much less likely to offend again if they hold down a job on release.”
Labour’s sentencing guru, Mr Gauke, has claimed some of the country’s most dangerous offenders could be released from prison early to ease the overcrowding crisis behind bars.
The former Tory justice secretary admitted vile inmates – including rapists – could be among those let out.
He admitted the proposals will be “controversial” and “difficult”, adding dangerous offenders “will have to be released sooner if we are serious about not exceeding capacity.”
Ministers have triggered emergency measures to lock up convicted criminals in police custody suites - just six months after Labour's controversial decision to release thousands of inmates last year to ease overcrowding.
A surge in prisoner numbers has pushed male prisons in England and Wales to 99 per cent capacity, MoJ sources said.
Justice chiefs want to use 200 police cells, it is understood. Mr Gauke revealed the Government could go even further to end the overcrowding crisis.
He said: “Where there are savings or, where, if we're going to make a substantial difference, then there's no getting away from this point, we have to look at those who are serving relatively long sentences.
“Those who are serving relatively long sentences will have to be released sooner if we are serious about not exceeding capacity.
“We have run out of space. There’s no getting away from the fact that…almost any proposals that we make in this area…will have opposition.
“They will be controversial. They will be difficult. But nonetheless they will be necessary.”
Terminally ill offenders could also be released earlier, Mr Gauke has admitted.
He said: “There are three ways in which you can control the prison population.
“One is about not sending people to prison at all who might otherwise be dealt with in the community.
“The second is if people are sent to prison for them to be imprisoned for less long.
“And the third is about rehabilitation and about reducing the level of crime.
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“Now we will look at measures that assist all three of those objectives.
“Whether that is people who have maybe committed relatively minor offences and currently get a prison for a short period of time.
“Is there something else that we can do there?”