Starmer refuses to promise that domestic abusers will not be released early under emergency measures to combat prison overcrowding

[IwantToRetire]

After being asked about the release schemes, the Prime Minister said ministers are "doing everything" to ensure domestic abusers are not released early but stopped short of confirming that they will not.

Speaking to broadcasters in Dublin, Sir Keir was discussing reports that there was a loophole in the early release scheme which could see domestic abusers released early.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/starmer-prisons-alex-chalk-domestic-abuse-early-release-overcrowding/

THIS

These people were going to be released shortly in anycase.

Criticise Labour all you like, i do! but this is one issue thats not on them, they had no choice.
Violence in prisons is rife, as is overcrowding, record numbers jammed into cells designed, by the Victorians, for 2 now have 4 inmates.

Not got a drug habit? go to prison, then you'll acquire one, which means when you are released, you'll commit more crime to feed that habit, wow what a ridiculous state of affairs!

If the streets aren't safe because of this release, thats down to the Tories not building enough prisons for their sentencing guidelines.

And yes, to the pp, Blair didn't build prisons either, prisoner welfare is never high on voters or governments agendas (unless it suits them to knock the other side, thats what is childish) but if you want safer streets, then prison and rehab are vital.

I’m a Labour voter - but I can still see that MPs who think men should be placed in women’s prisons are at best stupid, at worst a danger to women!

Labour cannot win:

Early release and he is endangering us all
Keep them locked up, thats inhuman.
Send to Estonia (an EU/NATO country) until new prisons built: Starmer is Joe Stalin, a man responsible for murdering 10s of millions of his own citizens.

It does indeed look like "Sore Tory Losers" (STLs), will criticise Labour whatever they do but offer NO solutions of their own nor accept the problem was caused by the previous Tory Government because for these people, there can never be any criticism of the Conservatives.

Not sure the attempt to go on about 'losers' is going to help Labour much when the polls show how badly they are doing

And if you get off pro Labour mn threads you'll see there's loads of criticism

So if I protest at rapists and abusers being released I'm a Sore Tory Loser, despite being centre left and never having voted Tory.

Amazing.

I'd be delighted if they'd keep rapists and abusers locked up indefinitely, couldn't give a fuck where they put them, fwiw. Fearing for the safety of women and children does not make you a 'Tory' or a 'Loser', ffs.

I will own up to being 'Sore', however. I'm fucking gutted at how little anyone seems to care about women and women's safety.

If this is being a 'loser', wtf does being a 'winner' look like?

Lets make one thing straight, i'm not happy about this release at all.

But whats the alternative?

Criticism is fine but no has any alternative.

Labour cannot conjure up prison places & if the idiots like Farage and many others hadn't stirred up the recent riots, we wouldn't have to release so many, quite so quickly, personally i'd prefer a prolific shopliffter released than i would not jail someone who tried to set fire to a hotel.

You listed several. Keep them in prison. Send them to Estonia. Build more prisons.

As for equivalances - I'd prefer a rapist kept inside than someone jailed for inflammatory tweeting.

The rioting has led to 200 prison sentences so far - an absolute drop in the ocean when we're talking 89,000 prison places.

I was just thinking that. They are releasing men who have been convicted of crime against a person (albeit only women in Labour’s view), to incarcerate many who have not abused or attacked other people.

I'm wondering if they are weighing up someone who commits crimes against 'society' and someone who commits crimes against 'women' and deciding that the latter can be released because its less serious.

Those aren't realistic or quick fixes.

Staff are being attacked because of over crowding, staff are also leaving, average length of a new starter staying in the PS is around 12months.

No rapist is being released, stop scare mongering, you know very well thats not what is happening.

The only solution is Early Release unless Estonia can take them & to re access why the UK jails the highest number of people, proportionately, than almost any other country in the EU - are we inherently bad people???

People not paying fines should never be jailed, whats the point? long community sentences would be better, same with someone who does 140 down the M5 at 2am.

Well had the riots not happened, then thats 200 less Hindley and Bradleys being released as doubtless you'd portray it.

BBC world service covered Estonia's offer the other week. It is there. Whether anyone will take it up is another thing.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the crucial bit is not the "rioters" but the "far right" description. It's not like other kinds of riots are unknown.

You don't have be a Tommy Robinson fan (I'm certainly not) to wonder whether Starmer would be doing his cut-price Judge Dredd routine if he didn't see the riots as a political challenge to Labour.

Looking the various people charged, i don't think they were in anyway a challenge to anyone but themselves.

People caught up in a mob tend to do things they wouldn't normally do.

Cost aside, the Estonia idea would satisfy everyone, maybe use the money intended for Rwanda.

No Govt can allow what happened a few weeks ago to continue, the tories used the courts in 2011 to crack down very hard on those rioters, what would you do? let them out on bail..

I also wonder whether the Labour stans on here ever consider whether their approach wins friends and influences people.

Being talked about now on Loose Women on ITV1+1 They have given examples of domestic abusers who have been released including one who broke his partners jaw and threatened to throw acid over her

I can see the point being made by pps that something had to be done. Prisons are overcrowded to dangerous and inhumane levels. This leads to a circular problem where their rehabilitation function simply cannot function (for want of better phrasing).

However, it should not be beyond the wit of the Gov and their advisors in the MoJ to craft legislation that permits early release only where the inmate’s crime doesn’t include domestic violence or abuse (or even better still violence at all). To have not included that safeguard is just lazy policy making.

They’ll be managed by the Probation Service. Many officers are already over 100% capacity but they still keep on coming. In preparation for ECSL, the powers that be decided that people on suspended sentences, community orders and licences would no longer be supervised after the 2/3 point of their sentence (not for the most complex cases which are too many to list on here). This created much more work in June (I think it was?) to prepare to suspend all supervisions that were already past that point and caused a lot of stress. Quite a few have already got new orders or been recalled for breaching their licence conditions which they are still subject to.

Bear in mind that there Probation Service is only at 91% staffing and we don’t have the option of waiting lists, we just have to keep on taking more and more. That includes staff who are off sick, most likely with stress.

We have had 8 weeks notice of SDS40 which includes doing all of the checks required for release and people’s HDC dates have been brought forward which require checks too.

There are programmes for people to complete but there are long waiting lists. People need support with housing but there is none. People need support with their mental health but there is none. Drug services had to sort out a large number of methadone etc scripts, find pharmacies that would take them etc.

Yesterday was hideous, with staff crying in the office, people turning up to the wrong place or not at all and having to be recalled straight away. Probation is not a great place to work right now!

The thing is, I actually trust Shabana Mahmood to have the right instincts on this. If there are limits to what she can do practically - and we know prison capacity is a huge chronic problem that successive governments have found can't be solved easily - it would be nice for the government to treat us like adults and level with us about those limits. We're not unreasonable people.

It might mean Keir and his comms people have to ease up on the "I'm a badass prosecutor" stuff that they're so addicted to, but I can live with that.

Also, they've got James Timpson in as Prisons Minister, which is a very rare example of an inspired appointment. Make good use of him while you can.

This government is shaping up to be an appalling failure.

Idratherbepaddleboarding I'm so sorry, it sounds horrendous.

Prison really is the paradigm of when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

I suspect that if you doubled the prison spaces - or trebled them - then in a few years time we'd be back here wondering "why are our prisons full ?". It's a little like putting a bucket under a leak, and instead of fixing the leak, wondering why every bigger bucket you put in place ends up getting full.

Sadly - like most things in a mature society - what works, and what wins votes are very rarely the same thing.

So, as always, as you were.

The temporary scheme

Labour had a similar policy that lasted from 2007 - 2010;

Feb 2010
Labour was last night accused of a cynical election ploy after scrapping its controversial early release scheme for prisoners only weeks before polling day.

Jack Straw announced the ending of the scheme, which has resulted in nearly 80,000 offenders walking free 18 days before their sentence reaches its halfway point.

Known officially as End of Custody Licence, the scheme has been contentious since its introduction in 2007.

Prisoners set free early have allegedly carried out 1,512 offences including three murders, and rapes and assaults.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1252953/Labours-early-prisoner-release-scheme-scrapped.html

I like Rosie Duffied but she should have voted against the motion.

Ideally I would have liked all Labour MP who abstained to have actually voted against.

But respect that I am not in her shoes.

Quite honestly I not quite sure of the implications of having the whip removed, but as Labour HQ have made clear this would be the consequence, that she didn't because it could stop her being a useful constituency MP.

And compared to all those Labour MPs who did votes for this, and are collecting (which I didn't know they good) their own fuel allowances, I think they are ones to be criticised.

Not someone the Labour Party has been trying to get rid off because of her lone bravery of not being silenced on women's sex based rigths.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/rachel-reeves-claim-thousands-energy-support-winter-fuel/ also at https://archive.is/61Dhh