Issue 354  13th July 2024

“Our prisons are on the point of collapse”, new Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood said today (Friday 12 July) as she set out how the government will stop the impending collapse of the criminal justice system. The Lord Chancellor explained that if prisons were to run out of places, courts would be forced to delay sending offenders to jail and police unable to arrest dangerous criminals – a crisis which would leave the public at risk from unchecked criminality...

... the government will temporarily reduce the proportion of certain custodial sentences served in prison from 50% to 40%, with important safeguards and exemptions to keep the public safe and clear release plans to manage them safely in the community. Sentences for serious violent offences of four years or more, as well as sex offences will be automatically excluded, and, in an important distinction from End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme, the early release of offenders in prison for domestic abuse connected crimes will also be excluded. This will include:

• stalking offences
• controlling or coercive behaviours in an intimate or family relationship
• non-fatal strangulation and suffocation
• breach of restraining order, non-molestation order, and domestic abuse protection order

Anyone released will be strictly monitored on licence by the Probation Service through measures which can include electronic tagging and curfews. They face being recalled to prison if they breach their licence conditions. The new rules will also not apply to most serious offenders, who already either spend two-thirds of their sentence behind bars or have their release determined by the Parole Board...

The changes announced today will come into force in September, giving the Prison and Probation Service time to plan for offenders’ release.

The new government should look at reducing the record-high number of prisoners remanded into custody to tackle the prisons crisis, a legal advocacy group has said. Prime minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that he was ‘shocked’ by what the Labour administration has found out about overcrowding in prisons since taking over last week. Ministers are due to announce the terms of a new prisoner release scheme for England and Wales today. It is expected to allow early release for some prisoners who have served 40% of their sentence, instead of the current release at half way point.

But Penelope Gibbs, director of Transform Justice, has pointed out that much of the overcrowding in prisons is due to defendants who are being held on remand ahead of their trial. As of 30 September last year, the remand prison population was 16,196, the highest level for at least 50 years and effectively a 'record high', according to a statistician behind official Prison & Probation Service stats. Statistics gathered by Transform Justice show that only 36% of adults remanded in the magistrates court are given an immediate custodial sentence by the lower court after conviction. The statistic excludes those committed to the Crown court for trial or sentencing...

This Government will deliver fundamental change. Alongside our five national missions, which are long-term objectives providing a driving sense of purpose for the country, we’ll make an immediate impact on people’s lives with our six first steps for change. Our first steps will:...

Launch a new Border Security Command: Our approach to securing our borders will include launching a new Border Security Command, deploying more police and investigators to smash the criminal smuggling and trafficking gangs, tackling the problem at source. It will involve counter-terror style tactics, using the full force of Britain’s intelligence and policing to destroy the evil business model of human trafficking...

Crack down on antisocial behaviour: Antisocial behaviour hits the poorest communities hardest, and if ignored could lead to more serious offending. That’s why we’re putting 13,000 extra neighbourhood police and PCSOs back on the beat, and will make sure every community has a named officer they can get in touch with if they need them. We’ll implement tough new penalties for offenders, and a new network of youth hubs that gives young people at risk of being drawn into crime the support they need. And we’ll introduce new regulations which will make it easier to clamp down on escalations in drug dealing or drinking, and those repeatedly wreaking havoc in town centres and problem areas...

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has today set out the first steps to establishing a new UK Border Security Command (BSC). This will strengthen Britain’s border security and smash the criminal smuggling gangs making millions out of small boat crossings...

Following the Home Secretary’s instruction, a core team in the Home Office is establishing the remit, governance and strategic direction of the new command. Early legislation is being prepared to introduce new counter terror style powers and stronger measures to tackle organised immigration crime. She has also commissioned a bespoke investigation from the department and the NCA into the latest routes, methods and tactics used by people smuggling gangs across Europe to inform a major law enforcement drive over the coming months... In a call to the Director General of the NCA, Graeme Biggar, the Home Secretary stressed the need to break the business model of the criminal smuggling gangs, going after their ability to communicate, move people across Europe and their profit. The Home Secretary will have further calls this week with European interior ministers and with the Director General of Europol to discuss strengthening security cooperation...

Having achieved the recent changes to security searching at Woolwich Crown Court and Westminster Magistrates’ Court for PUAS members, I am pleased to tell you that the adapted search procedures will also apply at Stratford Magistrates’ Court with effect from 22nd July 2024. I hope, and expect, that the roll-out of this adapted policy to other Crown Courts, Magistrates’ Courts and tribunal buildings nationally will follow swiftly...