Issue 362  7th September 2024

The prison population in England and Wales has reached a record high, just days before the government's temporary early release scheme comes into force. According to figures released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on Friday, the number of inmates has risen by 1,159 since 2 August, the week when the UK riots began, and now stands at 88,521, the highest level on record. Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the BBC he was "shocked" at the state of the prison system when asked about a BBC report from inside HMP Pentonville in north London. "We have to release people early because otherwise we'll have an absolute crisis in our prisons," he said.

As of Friday, there were only 1,098 places left in the prison system in England and Wales - 1.2% of available space. The government's temporary early release scheme will see about 3,000 prisoners in England and Wales released early from jail on 10 September. Sir Keir said he did not want to be in a position of releasing people who should be in prison, but said the situation was at "crisis point". The policy will not apply to those convicted of sex offences, terrorism, domestic abuse and some violent offences. The prime minister said risk assessments would ensure high-risk prisoners would not be released, with thresholds for risk "bearing in mind the victims"...

Five of the former most senior judges have intervened in the debate over the prison population crisis to urge the government to reverse the trend of locking people up for longer – declaring that 'radical solutions' are required to tackle the prison population crisis. Today’s report from the Howard League for Penal Reform, Sentence Inflation: a judicial critique, is signed by former lords chief justice Lord Woolf, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd and Lord Burnett of Maldon, and former Queen’s Bench Division president Sir Brian Leveson. It comes as the government prepares to release 5,500 prisoners earlier than planned.

The judges said custodial sentence lengths have doubled in over the half-century they were involved in the law. ‘There is nothing that justifies this doubling of sentence lengths. Government legislation relating to sentencing has consistently provided that imprisonment should only be imposed if there is no suitable alternative punishment, and that imprisonment should be for the minimum period commensurate with the crime. The law dictates this,' they said. ‘The problem is that there is no objective measure for deciding what term of imprisonment is commensurate with a particular offence. Nor have governments always been content to leave it to the judges to decide the appropriate sentence.’

The government has pledged to crack down on ‘snatch thefts’ after this criminality soared by more than 150 per cent in the last year. An estimated 78,000 people had phones or bags grabbed from them on the streets, with policing intelligence suggesting that this is being driven by increased demand for second hand smartphones, both in the UK and overseas. To tackle this challenge head on, tech companies and manufacturers will be called to attend a Home Office summit on the issue, looking at the new innovations that could take on the illegal market. This will build on anti-theft smartphone features that some tech firms have already rolled out to protect their customers.

The government will also task police chiefs to tackle this scourge in neighbourhood theft. Operation Opal, the national police intelligence unit will launch an intelligence probe to gather urgent intel on the criminals who steal mobile phones, and where these devices end up. This will provide a stronger picture of the stolen mobile phone market, and identify what more needs to be done to tackle the problem. Local police will also continue to surge police patrols in areas most at risk of serious violence, including robberies at knifepoint, with the government working with forces across the country to ensure that there is visible police presence in these hotspot areas to deter criminals and protect our communities...

Legislation has been laid in Parliament to ban xylazine and 21 other dangerous drugs as part of the government’s action to prevent drug deaths and crack down on drug dealing gangs. Xylazine, often known as ‘tranq’, is a high-strength veterinary sedative, which has increasingly been used in combination with opioids such as heroin as a cheap means of stretching out each dose. It has also been found in cannabis vapes.

Xylazine-involved overdose deaths in the United States rose from 102 to 3,468 in the space of just 3 years between 2018 and 2021, and its effects on long-term users – often leaving them immobilised in the street, and prone to non-healing skin lesions – have led to its characterisation as the ‘zombie drug’. Following a recommendation from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), a statutory instrument has been laid in Parliament this week to control xylazine as a class C drug - a step that has not yet been taken in the United States, Canada, Mexico or other countries in the world affected by xylazine abuse.

Xylazine is one of 22 harmful substances that will be banned under the new legislation, 6 of which will be controlled as class A drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Anyone caught producing or supplying these class A drugs could face up to life in prison, an unlimited fine, or both...

A judge-led board set up to advise the lord chancellor on criminal legal aid will present its recommendations shortly, the new chair of the Criminal Bar Association has revealed. The Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board was set up nearly a year after the Bellamy review on criminal legal aid recommended the establishment of such an independent body. Its remit is to provide advice on the operation and structure of existing and future criminal legal aid schemes, and to assess how the schemes should adapt to support the criminal justice system and wider objectives of the legal profession...

The board first met in October 2022. Her Honour Judge Deborah Taylor, who was appointed chair in July 2023 on an 18-month basis, told the Criminal Law Solicitors Association conference last year that the board was ‘not going to be just another talking shop’. Board members include the Law Society, Bar Council, Criminal Bar Association and Ministry of Justice officials. New CBA chair Mary Prior KC wrote in her first weekly update that the board’s recommendations ‘are due shortly’...

Former nurse Lucy Letby has brought in a new legal team to pursue a possible appeal against her murder convictions, it emerged this week. Mark McDonald of Furnival Chambers, revealed yesterday that he is representing Letby, who is serving a whole life sentence after being convicted of seven counts of murder and the attempted murder of seven others. McDonald posted on Twitter that he is providing his services for free on the matter and is working with veteran MP David Davis, who has voiced scepticism about the safety of Letby’s convictions...

Letby, a nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital, was convicted in two separate trials of murdering seven babies who were under her care between June 2015 and June 2016. An inquiry into the hospital will begin next week. But some medical experts have raised concerns about the evidence that was presented at her trials. It was then reported this week in the Guardian that handwritten notes used to convict Letby were written on the advice of professionals to deal with extreme stress...