Prisoners who have been assessed as “high risk” are being let out of jail under the government’s early release scheme, a serving probation officer has told Sky News.
That is despite the prime minister telling the House of Commons on Wednesday that “no one” would be put on to the scheme “if they were deemed a threat to public safety”.
The End of Custody Supervised License (ECSL) was introduced in October to ease overcrowding in jails across England and Wales. It allows certain prisoners to be released up to 70 days before the end of their sentence.
The government says sex offenders, terrorists, serious violent offenders, and those serving sentences of more than four years are not eligible.
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‘High risk to the public’
“They could be high risk to the public as we assess them,” Ben – which isn’t his real name – told Sky News.
“Just because they’re not doing a long sentence that doesn’t mean people are not deemed to be a high risk in the public domain. And we wouldn’t have time to put in place safeguards, or do any checks.
“I’m aware recently of at least two people who’ve come out, who we assess as high risk.”
At Prime Minister’s Questions, the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer pointed to an example of one inmate who posed a danger to children and had a risk of domestic abuse and stalking, who had his release date brought forward.
This example was raised as part of an inspection into HMP Lewes by the prisons watchdog, which raised “serious concerns” about the implementation of the measure.
Emergency…
