LONDON: Britain’s new Labour government plans to expand the early release of prisoners from September to tackle a jail overcrowding crisis which justice minister Shabana Mahmood said threatened to create “a total breakdown of law and order.”
Prisons in England and Wales have space for only 700 more male inmates and are likely to be full within weeks, after which cells in police stations would need to be used, preventing officers from patrolling the streets.
“We could see looters running amok, smashing in windows, robbing shops and setting neighborhoods alight,” Mahmood said in a speech at a prison in central England, blaming the crisis on her Conservative predecessors.
Under the plan, which is subject to parliamentary approval, most prisoners will become eligible for release after serving 40 percent of their sentences behind bars, down from 50 percent currently.
Prisoners who are let out can be returned to jail if they reoffend or break other terms of their release.
The early release plan would be reviewed in 18 months’ time, Mahmood said. Asked how many would be freed, she said the figure was in the “low thousands” in the short term.
Britain has western Europe’s highest rate of incarceration and prisoner numbers have risen sharply since the pandemic, due to longer sentences, court delays and a requirement for serious offenders to serve at least 65 percent of their sentences behind bars.
Labour, which came to power last week, has used the crisis as an example of the legacy of underfunded public services left by former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government.
Mahmood said 10,000 prisoners had been released since October 2023 under a previous emergency scheme which she would scrap to allow for a more systematic program.
Violent offenders sentenced to at least four years, sex offenders and domestic abusers will not be eligible for the early-release program, the justice ministry said.
Britain’s Prison Governors’ Association had said on Thursday that a new government policy was imminent, and welcomed the move.
The Law Society, which represents most lawyers in England and Wales, said the problem reflected long-term cuts to criminal justice funding and the government would need to put appropriate safeguards in place to monitor newly released prisoners.
“The concerns of victims who are having to wait years for justice and then see offenders released early must also be recognized,” Law Society President Nick Emmerson said.
Britain’s justice ministry said an extra 1,000 trainee probation officers would be recruited by March 2025.
However, existing government budget plans — which Labour has said it will largely stick to — foresee real-terms cuts of nearly 3 percent a year over the next four years to a range of public services including justice.
UK plans to release more prisoners early to tackle overcrowding
https://arab.news/97v4z
UK plans to release more prisoners early to tackle overcrowding
- Prisoners who are let out can be returned to jail if they reoffend or break other terms of their release
Ukraine drops NATO goal as Trump envoy sees progress in peace talks
- The move marks a major shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join NATO as a safeguard against Russian attacks and has such an aspiration included in its constitution
BERLIN/KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky offered to drop Ukraine’s aspirations to join the NATO military alliance as he held five hours of talks with US envoys in Berlin on Sunday to end the war with Russia, with negotiations set to continue on Monday.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said “a lot of progress was made” as he and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met Zelensky in the latest push to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two, though full details were not divulged.
Zelensky’s adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said the president would comment on the talks on Monday once they were completed. Officials, Lytvyn said, were considering the draft documents.
“They went on for more than five hours and ended for today with an agreement to resume tomorrow morning,” Lytvyn told reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
Ahead of the talks, Zelensky offered to drop Ukraine’s goal to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees.
The move marks a major shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join NATO as a safeguard against Russian attacks and has such an aspiration included in its constitution. It also meets one of Russia’s war aims, although Kyiv has so far held firm against ceding territory to Moscow.
“Representatives held in-depth discussions regarding the 20-point plan for peace, economic agendas, and more. A lot of progress was made, and they will meet again tomorrow morning,” Witkoff said in a post on X.
The talks were hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who a source said had made brief remarks before leaving the two sides to negotiate. Other European leaders are also due in Germany for talks on Monday.
“From the very beginning, Ukraine’s desire was to join NATO, these are real security guarantees. Some partners from the US and Europe did not support this direction,” Zelensky said in answer to questions from reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
“Thus, today, bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the US, Article 5-like guarantees for us from the US, and security guarantees from European colleagues, as well as other countries — Canada, Japan — are an opportunity to prevent another Russian invasion,” Zelensky said.
“And it is already a compromise on our part,” he said, adding the security guarantees should be legally binding.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly demanded Ukraine officially renounce its NATO ambitions and withdraw troops from the about 10 percent of Donbas which Kyiv still controls. Moscow has also said Ukraine must be a neutral country and no NATO troops can be stationed in Ukraine.
Russian sources said earlier this year that Putin wants a “written” pledge by major Western powers not to enlarge the US-led NATO alliance eastwards — shorthand for formally ruling out membership to Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other former Soviet republics.
Sending Witkoff, who has led negotiations with Ukraine and Russia on a US peace proposal, appeared to be a signal that Washington saw a chance of progress nearly four years after Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Under pressure from Trump to sign a peace deal that initially backed Moscow’s demands, Zelensky accused Russia of dragging out the war through deadly bombings of cities and Ukraine’s power and water supplies.
A ceasefire along the current front lines would be a fair option, he added.
‘CRITICAL MOMENT’
Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said it was a “good sign” Trump had sent his envoys while fielding questions in an interview with the ZDF broadcaster on the suitability of Witkoff and Kushner, two businessmen, as negotiators.
“It’s certainly anything but an ideal setup for such negotiations. That much is clear. But as they say, you can only dance with the people on the dance floor,” Pistorius said.
On the issue of Ukraine’s offer to give up its NATO aspirations in exchange for security guarantees, Pistorius said Ukraine had bitter prior experience of relying on security assurances. Kyiv had in 1994 agreed to give up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in exchange for territorial guarantees from the US, Russia and Britain.
“Therefore, it remains to be seen to what extent this statement Zelensky has now made will actually hold true, and what preconditions must be met,” Pistorius said.
“This concerns territorial issues, commitments from Russia and others,” he said, adding mere security guarantees, especially without significant US involvement, “wouldn’t be worth much.”
Britain, France and Germany have been working to refine the US proposals, which in a draft disclosed last month called for Kyiv to cede more territory, abandon its NATO ambitions and accept limits on its armed forces.
European allies have described this as a “critical moment” that could shape Ukraine’s future, and sought to shore up Kyiv’s finances by leveraging frozen Russian central bank assets to fund Kyiv’s military and civilian budget.
