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PMQs: Starmer grills Sunak over early release of prisoners

  • May 15, 2024



PMQs: Starmer grills Sunak over early release of prisoners

version 7.0 of his time in office doesn’t extend as far as answering questions or giving any information on those prisoners he is releasing early basic details like how many where are they what crimes have they committed so will he at least guarantee that none of the criminals he is instructing prisoners to release early are considered high risk Mr Speaker there are strict eligibility criteria in place with exclusions based on public safety and no one will be put on the scheme if they were deemed a threat to Public Safety you may want to read the recent inspection report into Lewis Prison on this topic I’ve asked him twice about it documents it documents page five high risk prisoners being released at short notice without sufficient planning page 46 a high-risk prisoner had his right release date brought forward despite a history of stalking domestic abuse and a restraining order their words he was a risk to children just the early release of stalkers domestic abusers and those considered a risk to Children sound like the work of someone who is making the country more secure Mr Speaker as I’ve said as as I’ve said no one should be put on this scheme if they are a threat to the public and let me be crystal clear it does not apply it me absolutely split it does not apply to anyone serving a life sentence anyone convicted of a serious violent offense anyone convicted of terrorism anyone convicted of a sex offense and crucially in contrast to the system that labor had put in place Mr Speaker governors in the prison service have an absolute lock so that no one is put on the scheme who shouldn’t be but labor has repeatedly called for domestic abusers to be exempt from his scheme to release prisoners early his government has shamefully ignored those calls so now now we have the evidence that domestic abusers are being released early the Lewis report prime minister will he finally change course and back Labor’s calls Mr Mr Speaker as I’ve been Crystal Clear there is an absolute Governor lock on people who were put on the scheme and in contrast to the last Labor scheme prisoners were let out with no supervision No Electronic tags in fact 80,000 offenders were leted out 16,000 were violent Mr Speaker leading to multiple murders committed we fix that system but when it comes to this question not only are we building the bus biggest prison program in history we’re also deploying rapid deployment cells and Mr Speaker because on this side of the house we understand the importance of prison unlike one of his front benches who said one of his front benches and I said Who quote prison doesn’t prevent crime

Keir Starmer questions the prime minister on the government’s plans to release some prisoners early in an effort to ease overcrowding.
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Starmer quotes a recent report that states that domestic abusers are among the inmates eligible for the early release scheme, with Sunak saying there is a ‘governor’s lock’, which would prevent dangerous criminals being allowed back onto the streets. At the start of May the prison population in England and Wales was 87,505, with the official usable capacity put at 88,895. Capacity has increased by 3,000 places in a year, but still cannot keep up with demand

Government triggers crisis measure to ease prison overcrowding ► https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/09/government-crisis-measure-prison-overcrowding

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#starmer #sunak #pmqs #prisoners #prisons #uk #politics

25 comments

  1. they are intentionally causing as much damage as possible to the country and the people of Britain, our politicians should be locked up for this

  2. Maybe stop throwing people in prison for drug offences and we would have more space.

    Maybe if we focused on rehabilitation instead of punishment we could match norways system.

  4. It's a scary thought that rapists, murderers, domestic abusers etc may be released early. Where will they be housed? Will it be a case of: "coming to a neighbourhood near you soon!"
    Release people who've been jailed for not paying TV license fees, parking fines etc!!

  5. These two need a reality check. This country is on the brink of collapse, bled dry by the immigrants ( legal and illegal), yet they focus on this to sqabble about. Pathetic.

  16. New prisons Richie???🤔🤔 and the 20,000 new invisible police😂
    More tory lies the guys does it naturally!!

  20. What Starmer should have been doing is questioning why the government is still allowing arms and money to be sent to Israel after the fifth mass grave has been uncovered in Rafah hospital.

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