Prisoners say 'no hope outside' jail as first early release inmates recalled (original) (raw)

Around 1,700 offenders were freed early from prisons this week to ease overcrowding - but many released prisoners suggested their lives might be better inside jail than out

Some prisoners don't want to leave jail because they feel they have nothing on the outside for them

Prisoners are telling probation staff that they have “no hope outside” when they are released from jail.

Ian Lawrence, chief of the probation officers’ union Napo, said he was “not surprised” when inmates last week said they were likely to be back in jail after being released early. He told the Mirror offenders get “wedded to the idea” that their life in prison, with three meals and stable accommodation, is better than life in wider society.

Mr Lawrence told the Mirror that last week, which saw the early release scheme kick in, was “manic” for probation staff.

Around 1,700 offenders were freed early from prisons in England and Wales last Tuesday. The new scheme sees certain inmates released after completing 40% of their sentence - rather than the standard 50% - in a bid to ease overcrowding in jails.

Some prisoners were recalled to jail within days after being released. Recalls to prison are expected, with nearly 2,000 people a month recalled to prison for breaching their licence after release. But reports this week emphasised the scale of prisoners not wanting to leave prison, with one telling the Mirror: "There are a lot of people being released who aren't ready and some are kicking off saying they don't want to go."

Explaining the process ahead of someone being freed, Mr Lawrence said: “This is a typical conversation that a practitioner would have [with a prisoner up for release]: ‘Well, assuming you're coming out in three or four or five weeks, whatever, what are your prospects? Where are you going to go?’ Many of them have to admit, actually, they don’t fancy their chances outside.”

He continued: “They get wedded to the idea that they've got no hope outside. They might as well hang around there. It’s such an indictment on the system.” The union chief said probation workers do their “level best”, with many offenders getting out of jail and managing to get their life back on track.

But he warned that staffing pressures and a lack of funding for rehabilitative programmes in the community limit the success of the service - and it means probation officers get stuck in a cycle of recalling and reprocessing the same people.

He said too many people were locked up in jail who should be getting support from other services: “I'm talking about people who have mental health problems, have diminished responsibility, have committed an offence out of desperation, maybe poverty, or are hooked on drugs. Until the Government takes a long term view of penal policy and prison sentencing, in particular, we're going to have a continuation of the crisis."

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "The new Government inherited a prison system in crisis, and we have taken immediate action to address overcrowding in our jails. When prisons are full to bursting they cannot deliver rehabilitation work that will cut reoffending. By addressing the crisis in our prisons, we can begin the work of making better citizens and not better criminals.”