Early release means justice snatched away - PCC

The police and crime commissioner (PCC) for the West Mercia force has criticised government plans to tackle prison overcrowding, saying too many people are "seeing justice snatched away" through early release of inmates.

John Campion said the measure - despite being watered down from original proposals - would not be considered fair by many victims.

"Lots and lots of families who thought they were getting some form of justice will now realise they won't be," he said.

Under the scheme, thousands of prisoners will be eligible for release part-way through their sentence, although the prime minister has said criminals who committed rape, grooming, and serious child sex offences will be excluded.

Campion, who serves in the role as a Conservative, also urged the government to focus on building more prisons, and said failure to do so was at the root of overcrowding.

"The last Conservative government, and this Labour government, they are not focusing enough on ensuring there are enough prison places," he said.

"Successive governments have not seriously tackled this - we need a long-term strategy to ensure we don't keep doing this generation after generation.

"I need the prime minister to look past this cycle, and past this year, and ensure we are building our way out of the problem.

"Our prison system is full, there will be more people out there who should be in prison who won't be, and our communities will be rightly concerned about that."

As a warning, he cited the example of Richard and Alex Quinn, a Hereford father and son who were released from prison early, albeit under a different scheme than that being proposed by the government which has come under renewed scrutiny this summer.

The duo were jailed for a vicious attack on a police officer in Hereford city centre, only to be released in June under a Home Detention Curfew Scheme just four months into multi-year sentences.

That decision led to major criticism from the Police Federation, which called for a review.

"Justice is hard to get in our society - we are re-victimising people who fought hard for justice, only to see it snatched away," Campion said.

"Examples like that should be the thing that galvanises the government's efforts to make sure we don't keep making these mistakes."

Justice Secretary Alex Norris has said about 1,000 prisoners will now not be released early following revisions to plans.

He also said the government wanted to go further with revisions, but changing the scope further would risk "a prison capacity crisis".

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: "As a country, we haven't invested in the prison estate when we should have, going back over a decade.

"This has created an unacceptable situation, with our adult male prisons now at 98% capacity.

"My government will deliver the fastest prison building programme since the Victorian era and do what's necessary to fix the prison crisis."

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