Prisoners to Be Freed up to 18 Days Early in Order to Tackle Overcrowding

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk (L) attends the official opening of HMP Fosse Way, a new Category C prison in Leicester, England on June 29, 2023. Jacob King/PA

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk has given the green light for criminals convicted of “less serious” offences to be released up to 18 days before their automatic release date.

On Monday, Mr. Chalk said early release would be among a series of measures the Ministry of Justice would be taking in efforts to prevent overcrowding in prisons, with 88,225 people currently incarcerated in England and Wales.

Mr. Chalk said: “The prison population in England and Wales is greater than it has ever been—nearly double the level it was three decades ago. Now that is not principally because of the growth in the sentenced population. Instead it’s the remand population, principally made up of unconvicted prisoners awaiting trial, that has surged in recent years from 9,000 in 2019 to over 15,000 in 2023.”

He confirmed plans to send fewer “low-level offenders” to prison and said the presumption would be that those given terms of up to 12 months would be given suspended sentences.

Mr. Chalk said 3,000 people who had been given Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences were still in jail despite their tariffs having been completed.

Last year the House of Commons Justice Committee referred to the IPP system as “irredeemably flawed.”

Mr. Chalk described IPP as a “stain on the justice system” and said: “I’m looking at options to curtail the license period to restore greater proportionality in sentences in line with recommendations of the justice select committee’s report.”

He also said the government would bring forward legislation that would allow prisoners to be held overseas, something which he mentioned in his speech at the Conservative Party conference earlier this month.

Norway and Belgium have both experimented with sending convicted criminals to serve their sentences in jails in the Netherlands.

Mr. Chalk said: “The first duty of any government is to keep its people safe. And that’s why those who pose a danger to society must be locked up. And this government is categorical that the worst offenders should be locked away for as long as it takes to protect the public.”

Mr. Chalk, who replaced Dominic Raab as Justice Secretary in April, also confirmed plans to speed up the deportation of foreign criminals in jail.

Around 3,100 foreigners have been removed from prisons in England and Wales in the year to March 2023, but another 10,500—12 percent of the prison population—remain behind bars.

Last week The Times reported Lord Edis, the senior presiding judge in England and Wales, had ordered the sentencing of convicted criminals currently on bail, including rapists, to be delayed from October 16.

Chalk Says Newspaper Reports ‘Untrue’

But on Monday, Mr. Chalk said: “There have been inaccurate reports in the media claiming that judges are being told not to send rapists to prison. Let me be categorical this is untrue. Sentencing is a matter for the judiciary acting in a partially and in accordance with the law.”

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk meets a search dog as he attends the official opening of HMP Fosse Way, a new Category C prison in Leicester, England. Jacob King/PA

Mr. Chalk said the government was building 20,000 “modern rehabilitative prison places”, which he described as the largest prison building programme since the Victorian era.

“By doubling up cells, where it is safe to do so, speeding up the deportation of foreign national offenders and delaying non-essential maintenance projects to bring cells back into use. We have freed up an extra 2,600 places since September last year,” he added.

Mr. Chalk also fleshed out details on the removal of foreign nationals.

Last year a request under the Freedom of Information Act by The Epoch Times revealed 125 foreign nationals serving life sentences for murder or terrorist offences were sent back to their home country between 2011 and 2019.

1 in 4 Foreign Nationals Doing Life Sent Home

But that was only a quarter of the 435 foreign nationals who were given life sentences between 2011 and 2019.

Eleven Albanian nationals serving life sentences for murder were sent home as part of an agreement with the government in Tirana which has been in operation for several years.

But The Epoch Times revealed at least one Albanian national, Hekuran Billa, was released early from jail after being repatriated in 2016.

Undated image of Hekuran Billa, who was convicted in 2008 of a murder in London, then sent back to Albania, released from prison early, and murdered. Metropolitan Police

Billa—who was not due to be released until 2042—was freed by an Albanian judge in 2019, only to be murdered in Tirana in June 2020.

Research by Georgina Sturge, published by the House of Commons Library last month, said the prison population fell during the COVID-19 pandemic but has steadily grown since but is still not near its pre-pandemic level.

The study said: “Prison sentences have been lengthening, with 56 percent of determinate prison sentences being over 4 years compared with 40 percent in 2013.”

The prison population in Scotland and Northern Ireland are unaffected by Mr. Chalk’s announcement.

There are currently 7,775 inmates in Scottish prisons and 1,900 people in jail in Northern Ireland.

PA Media contributed to this report.