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The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced plans to construct additional prison facilities while simultaneously considering options for early prisoner release and increasing the use of electronic tagging. These developments follow recent figures and decisions surrounding the government’s early release scheme, which has faced significant public scrutiny.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham recently expanded the list of offenders excluded from the early release program in response to public backlash, particularly from victims’ communities. Despite these changes, Burnham faced criticism because the perpetrators responsible for the death of PC Andrew Harper would still qualify for early release under the current rules. PC Harper, aged 28, died in 2019 after being dragged along a country road by a car driven by three teenagers fleeing the scene of a quad bike theft in Berkshire.
Burnham expressed confidence last week that the killers of PC Harper could be excluded from the early release scheme. On August 3, he wrote that he had “wanted to go even further” in restricting early release, but had “pushed to the very limits of what is possible to do.” A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice emphasized that “public safety will always be our priority.”
The MoJ is accelerating plans to ensure that more serious offenders remain incarcerated. These measures build upon the existing exclusions within the scheme that already prevent early release for murderers, those serving life sentences, and prisoners convicted of rape, serious child sexual abuse, and grooming offenses. The spokesperson acknowledged the public’s anger over the situation and noted that these options are being considered despite inheriting a prison system that was “on the brink of collapse.
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