- Tom Wheatley, president of the Prison Governors' Association, has warned that rowing back on government plans to release thousands of prisoners early risks leaving severely overcrowded UK prisons at breaking point.
- Wheatley called on prime minister Andy Burnham to demonstrate courage by tackling the ongoing scandal of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail terms, which currently leave nearly 2,300 inmates trapped in jail indefinitely.
- The prisons chief stressed that severe overcrowding and staffing shortages undermine rehabilitation efforts, warning that releasing unchanged or more dangerous offenders poses a greater risk to public safety.
- Following public backlash over early release measures that could free two of the teenagers convicted of killing PC Andrew Harper, Wheatley cautioned against political decisions driven by sentiment that lead to further sentence inflation.
- Justice Secretary Alex Norris is scheduled to present a plan to Parliament in September to ease prison overcrowding, considering options such as addressing IPP sentences, accelerating foreign offender removals, and repurposing some women's prisons.
IN FULL
