Pubdate: Fri, 22 Mar 2002
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact:  http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/454
Author: Richard Ford, Home Correspondent

EARLY PRISON RELEASE ESSENTIAL, SAYS BLUNKETT

EMERGENCY measures have to be taken to ease prison overcrowding, David 
Blunkett said yesterday, defending proposals to release thousands of 
prisoners early.

The Home Secretary told a conference in London: "If anyone watching, 
reporting or listening today seriously believes that a further exponential 
rise in the prison population for short-term prison sentences and 
first-time offenders is the way to ensure our safety, then they are sorely 
deluded."   He said the public should remember the Strangeways riots, which 
were partially caused by overcrowding in the jail.

Thousands of prisoners serving between three and 12 months are to be let 
out of jail two months early and electronically tagged. Mr Blunkett is also 
negotiating for funding for an emergency building programme: 3,000 prison 
cells in prefabricated blocks will be placed in the grounds of Category C 
and D jails.

The prison population has risen from 66,000 in January to a record 71,100. 
Many prisons are at bursting point. Yesterday's announcement will see an 
estimated 3,150 offenders considered to be no danger to the public let out 
on electronic tags at any one time, compared with 1,800 now.

The early release scheme will mean that a prisoner given a 12-month jail 
term could be out after serving four months. All prisoners serving 12 
months or less are released automatically without supervision after serving 
half their sentences. They will now be eligible to be released two months 
earlier. Mr Blunkett said that prison governors would have to have 
"compelling reasons"   for refusing to allow an inmate serving three to 12 
months early release.

The Home Secretary rounded on his criticis in the media, lobby groups and 
the Opposition. He said he felt bewildered by the debate going on around 
him. "What a lot of garbage,"  he said. "It's time people grew up in the 
country and helped me."

He won support from prison governors and the Probation Service for the 
measures. Mike Newell, of the Prison Governors'Association, hoped that 
governors would now be more willing to allow prisoners out under home 
detention curfew. "I think there has been a reluctance by governors to move 
away from what was quite a strict risk assessment criteria,"   he said.

Oliver Letwin, Shadow Home Secretary, said that the changes would undermine 
the way judges chose to sentence criminals.
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