Violent offenders moved to open jails in ‘safety risk’ to public

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1. Higher-risk, potentially violent, offenders are being moved into open prisons to cope with a continuing overcrowding crisis, The i Paper can reveal.

   Prison officers are warning that public safety is at risk because of a decision to fast-track a growing number of inmates into open conditions up to a year before their release.

   They could include prisoners with convictions for violent offences including assault, grievous bodily harm, non-fatal strangulation and violent disorder.

   The i Paper has learned Labour has now expanded the scheme, first quietly introduced under the Conservatives last year, and relaxed a key safety condition as prisons hurtle back towards full capacity.

   The requirement for participants to be on “enhanced” regimes for good behaviour in order to be eligible was dropped at the start of last month.

   Officers and prison governors fear the consequences of the scheme which they say is already “destabilising” open prisons. A watchdog has reported that organised criminals are moving into the more relaxed jails under the programme.

   Mark Fairhurst, national chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, said the policy was a “panic measure” that is now creating a “public safety risk”.

   “The knock-on effect is catastrophic,” he said. “More and more people are being sent back into closed [prisons] because they’re bringing in drugs [into open prisons], they’re bringing in phones, they’re smuggling illicit items. It’s a nightmare.”

   Tom Wheatley, president of the Prison Governors’ Association said: “Prison governors are concerned because you’ve got people who are less compliant, less engaged, and in many cases have less to lose [because they are less likely to need parole].

   “They’ve got no security, there’s no perimeter, there’s literally no fence. Open prisons are open, you can literally walk out.

   “Staffing levels are very low, and if people are not behaving themselves the likelihood of that being witnessed and dealt with properly is massively reduced.”

   The programme applies to some inmates who will qualify for early release at the 40 per cent point of their sentence under the separate controversial Government scheme, which has freed over 3,000 people since September.

   Insiders say that although early releases have brought overall prisoner numbers down, the jails holding new inmates awaiting trial and sentencing are still overcrowded because of massive court backlogs.

   “It’s given us breathing space that we needed but it’s only going to last temporarily,” Mr Fairhurst said. “By next summer we’ll be back in the same situation again, absolutely full to the brim with nowhere to put them.”

   Read more here: [https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/violent-offenders-moved-open-jails-safety-risk-public-3412681](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/violent-offenders-moved-open-jails-safety-risk-public-3412681)

2. It’s okay, Christian forgiveness and all the rest.
   If violent offenders can become an MP I don’t see nothing wrong about them moved to an open jail

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