“Relief” or “crazy decision”? Burnham suspends plan to release some prisoners earlyposted 19:34 BST 23 July
Jacob Phillips
Live reporter
Andy Burnham has announced that plans for the early release of some prisoners will be paused as an “urgent review” is carried out to minimize the risk to the public.
Hundreds of prisoners were due to be released as early as September as part of efforts to address prison overcrowding. In total, about 6,000 criminals were to be released under this scheme.
“Ensuring public safety will always be my top priority,” Burnham said.
The suspended policy would have allowed some prisoners to be released after serving a third of their prison sentences, while some offenders who were jailed for serious sexual assault and violent offenses would have served half of their sentences. Here’s our simple guide to the circuit.
Justice Secretary Alex Norris said the government would now consider “who can leave and when they will leave” prisons. Welcoming the pause, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called for murderers and rapists to be excluded from the scheme “forever”.
One sexual assault survivor who was told her attacker could be released under the scheme told the BBC it was such a “relief that we were being heard” and the mother of PC Andrew Harper, killed in 2019, said the pause was a “good start”.
But one prison official told our correspondent that the move is a “crazy decision” and prisons are at a critical point of overcrowding.
Before we end our live coverage, we’ll bring you our political editor Chris Mason’s final analysis.
You can also read more about the early release scheme and its review in our story.