Early release 'undermines' system
By Danny Shaw
BBC home affairs correspondent
Public confidence in the criminal justice system is being eroded by the
early release scheme, the former Lord Chief Justice has told the BBC.
Almost 50,000 offenders have been let out under the scheme - known as
End of Custody Licence (ECL).
It was introduced 18 months ago to reduce inmate numbers at the height
of the prison overcrowding crisis.
But Lord Woolf said people had become "conditioned" to the early release
scheme.
"I think we've now become conditioned to executive release," Lord Woolf
said.
"It's now being used routinely and we've got embedded in our system a
situation of the judges sending prisoners into prison by the front door
and the executive releasing them by the back door, and that doesn't make
sense."
'Frustration'
Under ECL, less serious offenders can be freed two-and-a-half weeks
before they have reached the halfway point of their prison term - the
stage at which most prisoners are released.
But John Thornhill, chairman of the Magistrates Association, said ECL
blunted the impact of prison sentences and was a source of frustration
for magistrates.
"To release (offenders) earlier on the decision of a member of the
executive rather than by a member of the judiciary... does undermine
confidence in those sentences," he said.
Mr Thornhill called for ECL to be "phased out immediately" because there
was now sufficient capacity in the prison system.
Figures published last week showed there were more than 2,000 spare jail
places.
When the scheme was introduced in July 2007, prison cells were in such
short supply that police stations and courts were used to accommodate
prisoners overnight.
Story from BBC NEWS:
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Published: 2009/02/25 20:42:06 GMT
Thursday, 26 February 2009
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