Rotherham gang member

[Thomasina79]

Has been let out after only serving half his sentence. Apparently this is routine. How can someone like him be allowed out at all. His crimes were so horrendous he should spend the rest of his life in prison, in my opinion.

When someone receives a sentence that is the time they will spent supervised by the criminal justice system - not the time they will spend in prison - they will normally serve half of it in prison and half in the community - That is the sentence - he has not been let out early and is still serving his sentence.

Whilst in the community there are restriction's on how and where they live and what they can do - they can be recalled back to prison immediately for breaking any of these or for any other reason. This is still a built in part of the sentence.

People do not understand this about UK sentencing - for most crimes half is served in prison and the other half in the community - That is the sentence. I believe this automatic time to switch to the community is changing for some crimes.

The thinking is that if you just release someone from prison with no supervision they will almost certainly return to crime - having a long period of supervision means small infringement's can be picked up on and interventions in place.

I am not saying anything about whether this is right or not or commenting on this mans sentence - just explaining that this is how sentencing works.