prison Releases

[irc]

This seems to be going well.

" between January and March of 2026, for the first time ever, more people were recalled to prison than were released. "

"early releases just mean sending people out to commit more crime, and then be returned to prison. And now we are starting to see it showing in the data."

https://spectator.com/article/the-justice-system-i...

Even brutally killing a cop by dragging him behind a car doesn't stop early release.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/08/04/ju...

[slievenashaska]

Perhaps someone in government a decade ago ought to have thought about this, and actually spent the money to build some new prisons to house all those extra people being incarcerated, so that construction work is completing now and those prison spaces are available.

But who is going to vote for a government that spends money on prisons and not hospitals, or raises taxes so they can spend on both.

And who is going to vote for a government that is going to build that lovely new prison next door to them with all those murderers and sex offenders.

[richhead]

I heard recently that all cells are single occupancy now, not sure how true this is, but if it is then the fix of lack of prison space is solved overnight.

[P675]

richhead said:

I heard recently that all cells are single occupancy now, not sure how true this is, but if it is then the fix of lack of prison space is solved overnight.

I can tell you that this is absolutely impossible. Overcrowding in some establishments leads to 3-4 in a cell at times.

[Oceanrower]

richhead said:

I heard recently that all cells are single occupancy now, not sure how true this is, but if it is then the fix of lack of prison space is solved overnight.

Username checks out…

[SlimJim16v]

[SteveScooby]

The whole thing is a mess. “Low level” crime has effectively become decriminalised.

Shoplifters are getting suspended sentences and community orders when previously they were getting 6 months imprisonment. I accept that short term sentences do nothing for rehabilitation, but they do provide respite for victims.

We’re also seeing suspects charged with significant offences such as drug supply being bailed instead of remanded.

The early releases are often released to no fixed abode, meaning a spike in homelessness as well as the associated antisocial behaviour, begging, shoplifting and drugs offences…. And guess what, when they get arrested and charged again they don’t get sent to prison.

[RotorRambler]

Funny how people have forgotten who actually started early prisoner releases. The Conservatives did:

• 17 Oct 2023 – Up to 18 days early
• 8 Mar 2024 – Up to 35 days early
• 23 May 2024 – Up to 70 days early

They don’t get to create the prison capacity crisis and then pretend someone else invented early release.

[oyster]

RotorRambler said:

Funny how people have forgotten who actually started early prisoner releases. The Conservatives did:

17 Oct 2023 Up to 18 days early
8 Mar 2024 Up to 35 days early
23 May 2024 Up to 70 days early

They don t get to create the prison capacity crisis and then pretend someone else invented early release.

Accepting that, how many new prisons have Labour commissioned to build now they’ve been in government for a while?

[Warhavernet]

With 11 000 foreign criminals taking up 12% of capacity in our jails I wonder if this could be one of the reasons for this severe lack of wiggle room in the system.

[Mr Penguin]

Warhavernet said:

With 11 000 foreign criminals taking up 12% of capacity in our jails I wonder if this could be one of the reasons for this severe lack of wiggle room in the system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_prison_population#Immigrants_and_foreign_nationals

We could definitely do a deal with many of those countries to take their prisoners back with some extra money to cover costs + profit for their country of origin to want to take them. Ireland might be tricky and not much cheaper than keeping them here; Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Iraq are probably too dangerous; but that leaves just under 5000 that should be easy to return to just ten countries (as of 2024, I assume newer numbers are available somewhere).

As it happens, 5000 is the same number of prisoners due to be released early.

[tele_lover]

Since 1997 something like 12 million people have moved to the UK (and 5 million left).

Of those 12 million, i believe a majority were from the 2nd and 3rd world.

So how many extra people who commit crime?

20,000?
50,000?
100,000?

This is the problem. It's probably why the MoJ are refusing to release the crime statistics per nationality, even though the ICO instructed them to.

[rscott]

Warhavernet said:

With 11 000 foreign criminals taking up 12% of capacity in our jails I wonder if this could be one of the reasons for this severe lack of wiggle room in the system.

If you were a victim of a foreign criminal would you be happy for them to be sent home, then released without serving out their sentence