Serious offenders serving longer sentences could be let out early under plans to ease the prison capacity crisis, the Justice Secretary has suggested.
Criminals who have been locked up for serious offences – such as manslaughter – could be offered parole sooner under plans to reform sentencing and provide a sustainable prison capacity.
Opening a new 1,500 place rehabilitation-focused prison in Yorkshire, Shabana Mahmood backed ex-minister David Gauke’s call for reform of longer sentences to deal with the prison shortage.
But – amid pressure from the family of Sarah Everard – she said the measures would ensure the most dangerous criminals would remain behind bars.
Gauke’s interim report, published this year, said there was an over-reliance on longer sentences for crimes including drug dealing or even manslaughter.
And in a recent interview, he said sentencing reform people serving “relatively long sentences will have to be released sooner” – describing the measures as “controversial” but “necessary”.
Asked if she was prepared to be controversial by allowing violent prisoners, and even those convicted of manslaughter, to be released earlier Mahmood hinted that she was.
She said reviewing shorter sentences is “not going to be enough” to ease the capacity pressures and said she had not ruled out further emergency measures, such as the early release scheme announced in 2024.
The family of Sarah Everard, who was murdered, along with other bereaved families are campaigning for tougher sentencing for serious violent and sexual crimes.
Mahmood has hinted that changes to sentencing would not affect the most serious dangerous offenders, such as Everard’s murderer, the ex-police officer Wayne Cousins.
“It is 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,” the Justice Secretary said.
Mahmood commissioned the review from Gauke, one of her predecessors in the role, after having to resort to the release of prisoners before the end of their sentences to prevent the country from running out of cells.
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“I’ll wait until I get [the review recommendations] and then I’ll make my decisions about which of the recommendations I want to pursue. And of course, any recommendations will likely need primary legislation,” Mahmood said.
“But one thing is clear. We are already running back over 99 per cent capacity in the prison estate, so we’re not going to get to a position of sustainable prison capacity, including with new builds, with simply just action on shorter sentences.”
Mahmood recently visited a prison in Texas, United States, to learn about a policy of rewarding good behaviour with early parole.
“We are particularly interested in the effects that a good behaviour type system could have here for us,” she said.
“It’s for the review to 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.”
She said, despite plans to build 14,000 new prison places, the UK could not “build our way out of this crisis” and expects “pinch points” in prison capacity and has not “ruled out further operational measures if needed”.
“I do not wish to pull any further emergency levers,” the minister said, adding: “The intention is that in the end, once we’ve done the sentencing review and future legislation, we actually have a prison system that’s no longer on the point of collapse.”
She added: “I’ve already announced operational measures on home detention curfew and the extension of the use of home detention curfew, which will assist in prison capacity in the medium term.
“I’m not going to get ahead of myself and announce here any further operational measures that might be needed, but that’s a possibility. I can’t rule it out.”
The prison, opened by Mahmood on the outskirts of York, will house prisoners nearing the end of their sentences with a focus on rehabilitation and preparation for the outside world.
It provides workshops to teach vocations like carpentry, cleaning, plumbing and barista skills, and offers prisoners the chance to form their own elected “council” to act as a voice for the prison population.
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