A National Scandal

Mark Townsend in ‘The Observer’, Sunday 8 May 2011,
read here
reported that the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo) has condemned as "scandalous" the fact that hundreds of dangerous offenders, including those assessed as likely killers, are routinely released after serving half their sentence, despite most of them having failed to carry out any rehabilitation work or showing any remorse for their crimes.

According to the Napo report, during a two-week period last month more than 30 prisoners considered to pose a high or very high risk to the public were released, or about to be released, which must surely bring into question the 2005 law that stipulates all offenders sentenced to a fixed prison term are automatically released once half of their sentence is completed, regardless of their circumstances.

As Harry Fletcher, Napo's assistant general secretary, said: "It is scandalous that hundreds of prisoners are being released from custody automatically when they have completed half their sentence, despite assessments that they are of high risk of harm to the public. Case histories published by Napo show clearly that there is no incentive for certain prisoners to comply with rehabilitation plans in prison because they will be released when they have done half their time anyway”.

Whilst I entirely agree that this law is nothing short of a national disgrace, with the government putting the cost savings derived from cutting prison numbers before public safety, it’s a bit late now to decide one’s chickens have come home to roost. Where was Napo when this proposal was first mooted, and the proposal was that prisoners released early would be subject to supervision by the Probation Service? Now, when it’s been predictably shown that such a system does little or nothing to protect the public and prevent further crime, is a little late for a Damascene Conversion.

Last night a Ministry of Justice spokesman predictably said: "Reducing reoffending and protecting the public lies at the heart of our work”.

Tell that to the victim of a 40-year-old man, a convicted stalker from the Thames Valley area, who within two days of his release had turned up at his victim's house and conducted extensive Internet searches on her, even though he had previously been assessed as likely to kill her.

I wonder which parts of "reducing reoffending and protecting the public” does the Ministry of Justice not understand