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The head of the prisons watchdog has warned that the UK government’s early-release programme for prisoners faces a “challenge”, after many freed under an earlier scheme were sent “straight back” behind bars.
Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood on Friday set out plans to release large numbers of prisoners in England and Wales after they have served just 40 per cent of their sentence to ease a crisis that has brought the system close to full capacity.
Speaking at the inauguration of a new workshop in Pentonville Prison, north London, the chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor warned ministers that they would need to ensure prisoners were properly prepared for the scheme, due to start in September.
“We saw with the early release scheme that was being done by the last government that quite a lot of guys were being released and coming straight back into custody on recall,” Taylor said.
“Certainly, it’s always going to be a challenge when you introduce any sort of scheme like the government has introduced,” he added, noting he had worried “for a long time” that prisoners were “not always adequately prepared” for release.
There was a particular problem with recalls of former prisoners who had no homes arranged on release, he added.
Prison crowding is one of the most immediate crises facing the Labour government following the July 4 general election.
However, Taylor agreed that an early release scheme was the “least worst” option, given the challenges that high levels of crowding were creating. Prisoners were frequently locked in their cells “for too long with not enough to do, very often in enormously overcrowded conditions,” he said.
“Anything that reduces the prison population has to be a good thing as far as we’re concerned,” Taylor added.
Taylor was opening the new workshop intended to train prisoners as bike mechanics, set up by charitable business XO Bikes, after the appointment of the businessman James Timpson as prisons minister.
Prisoner advocates have welcomed his appointment because of his strong record of employing ex-offenders in the Timpson shoe repair business.
Taylor said Timpson would “hit the ground running” as prisons minister given his experience, but said he would judge the new government on the results of its policies.
“We know there’s not going to be an overnight transformation,” he said.
He also said it was critical to curb the widespread problem of drug abuse in prisons in England and Wales, and that giving prisoners a greater sense of purpose and hope was vital.
“We need to reduce the supply of drugs, but also the demand,” he said.
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