Prison early releases ‘very dangerous’ for crime victims, warns watchdog

The protection that victims of crime receive from the Government’s early release of prison inmates is “not good enough”, the national Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales has warned.

In an exclusive interview with i, Baroness Helen Newlove outlines her concerns about the “very dangerous” scheme that has been letting thousands of criminals out early to stop jails from overflowing.

Domestic abusers have already been freed in error and probation officers are struggling to properly impose and monitor restrictions, the Victims’ Commissioner said.

“I’m very worried and very concerned,” she told i. “Probation is still under-resourced, and that’s where the risk can be very dangerous.

‘Pressures on probation are huge’

“The pressures on probation are huge – around 1,500 prisoners a week are released already, never mind this. They’re dealing with it the best they can, but it’s not good enough in my eyes for victim protection.”

Her intervention comes as concern grows about the impact of the crisis in the criminal justice system on victims.

The Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson thinks that “too many” victims of rape are withdrawing their support from prosecutions because it can take four years to conclude a case, it was reported yesterday.

He said defendants were “taking advantage” of delays in the criminal justice system and “hoping that something will come up” to cause a rape trail to collapse.

“Typically, it can take two years to investigate a rape case and another two years to bring it to trial,” Parkinson told the Sunday Times. “I think that’s outrageous. We see too many victims – usually women – withdrawing their co-operation because of the delay and also because they don’t feel sufficiently supported.”

Baroness Newlove has similar concerns and has started an inquiry into the impact of the courts backlog (see box), and how it causes growing numbers of victims to drop out of prosecutions.

Court backlogs ‘should never have happened’

Victims of crime, whose cases have not yet reached court, face years stuck in record backlogs before a verdict is reached, with trials being set in some courts for late 2027 and early 2028.

More than 67,000 crown court cases were waiting to be heard by the end of last year, and the Ministry of Justice has not published up-to-date figures because of reported accuracies in official data.

The Conservative government blamed the backlog on a combination of the Covid pandemic, which caused courts to be temporarily shut and then reopened with reduced capacity for social distancing, and an intermittent barristers’ strike in 2022.

Baroness Newlove told i the backlogs should “never have happened in the first place”, and that recovery was now being made more difficult by a shortage of criminal barristers and judges.

“If we’ve got professionals who are no longer there, how do we have a criminal justice system working for people like it should do?” she asked.

The Victims’ Commissioner has started an inquiry into the impact of the backlog, which is believed to be causing growing numbers of victims to drop out of prosecutions – meaning that cases are ended and offenders go free.

The most recent available data shows that 2 per cent of criminal cases end because the “victim or witness no longer supports prosecution on the day of trial”, up on 1 per cent the year before.

“For rape cases, sexual abuse, for children, there’s a hell of a lot to go through,” Baroness Newlove she told i. “At the front end, you’re going through all the statements, interviews, and then waiting to see if they are going to be charged.

“And then to find out the trial is going to be two or three years down the line … no wonder they’re withdrawing.”

On prison early releases Baroness Newlove, who also sits as a Conservative peer in the House of Lords, said that although the Government had excluded people jailed for “domestic abuse-connected crimes”, such as stalking and non-fatal strangulation from its scheme, abusers jailed for other offences such as assault may not be detected.

Victims believed to be unaware offenders in their cases are free

Officials have already admitted wrongly releasing 37 offenders serving prison sentences for breaching restraining orders in September because they were mistakenly defined as eligible, including a man who allegedly reoffended by assaulting a woman.

Hundreds of victims are also believed to be unaware that offenders in their cases have been freed because they did not “opt in” to an official contact scheme at the point their court case ended, Baroness Newlove said.

“Why does a victim need to do any of this? Everybody should get hold of the victim, inform them and see if there’s restrictions they would like. I don’t want them bumping into [released prisoners] wherever they live, victims need to feel safe.”

More than 3,100 inmates were freed on two days in September and October under the Labour scheme known as SDS40, that releases some prisoners after 40 per cent of their sentences. Ministers said it was necessary to “avert disaster” and stop jails becoming completely full in England and Wales.

They are also seeking to address the problem in the longer term with a review of sentencing policy, headed by former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke, which will look at the length of terms, alternatives to prison and aim to improve public protection and rehabilitation.

When the second tranche of early releases came on 22 October, a union representing probation officers warned that members were “at breaking point” because the extra work had come on top of severe staff shortages.

Rolling early releases to continue

More than 13,000 prisoners have been freed early in the past year under a range of early release schemes triggered to ease prison overcrowding.

The Conservative Justice Secretary Alex Chalk first announced a “limited” scheme to free some low-level inmates up to 18 days early in October 2023, but the programme was lengthened to 60 days in March and 70 in May as jails neared total capacity and emergency provisions were triggered.

Ministry of Justice sources have told i the scheme was delayed by Downing Street, with Mr Chalk struggling to secure Rishi Sunak’s support because they were seen as “very politically unpalatable” in an election year.

Civil servants have been sending ministers formal submissions warning that prison overcrowding required urgent action and giving policy options for several months, i understands, with official projections from 2021 accurately predicting that operational capacity would be overwhelmed in late 2023.

By the end of June, 10,083 prisoners had been released early under the Conservatives government’s End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme.

It required decisions to be made by prison governors on individual cases, sparking warnings that probation officers were being left scrambling to put proper monitoring and public protection plans in place at the last minute.

Following the general election, the new Labour government announced a new early release scheme that simplified the process by moving the automatic release point for most jail sentences down from 50 to 40 per cent.

The programme, known as SDS40, excludes sexual offences, domestic abuse, national security offences and serious violence, but has so far seen at least 37 inmates released in error.

A total of 1,889 inmates were released on 10 September, and a further 1,223 on 22 October, with releases continuing on a rolling basis until the scheme is reviewed after 18 months in operation.

Another 10,000 prisoners had already been released early between October 2023 and the end of June, under a different programme started by the previous Conservative government to address prison overcrowding.

A spokesperson for the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo) said a “significant number” of those released so far have already been sent back to prison, either for breaking licence conditions or committing further offences.

Baroness Newlove said she was “concerned about probation being properly resourced”, warning: “The caseload for probation is heavy and we’re dealing with human lives here. Probation officers are there to protect the victim, to make sure everything’s in line for the offender not to go near them, and that is my worry in all of this.”

Seven years as victims’ watchdog

Baroness Helen Newlove was reappointed as Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales in October 2023.

She previously served in the post between 2013 and 2019, after becoming a prolific campaigner for victims’ rights in the wake of the 2007 murder of her husband, Gary Newlove by a gang of drunken youths in Warrington.

The Victims’ Commissioner post was left vacant for 13 months between September 2022 and last October, with Baroness Newlove initially being appointed only for a one-year “interim” term.

Last month, the Government announced that it had discontinued an official recruitment campaign and extended Baroness Newlove’s appointment until the end of 2025.

Her predecessor, Dame Vera Baird, accused then-justice secretary Dominic Raab of blocking her re-appointment and quit in 2022 with a scathing letter saying the then Conservative government had “sidelined” the watchdog and “downgraded victims’ interests”.

The dispute followed years of damning reports over the treatment of rape victims by police, and plummeting charge rates for sexual offences.

She also told i she was receiving frequent reports of victims not being properly updated by police or having their rights to information and support under the statutory Victims’ Code upheld.

“Even before they get to the point of a charge and into court, the system isn’t working,” she said.

“It’s not a level playing field – the victim has no legal representation in our court system. It’s a blunt tool, and they’d rather let guilty people go free than lock innocent people up.”

New measures to strengthen victims’ rights were introduced in a package of laws passed in May, but will take years to implement, and Baroness Newlove said the process had been “going on for too long”.

While Labour has vowed to bring forward further legislation to “introduce new protections for victims of crime” and give the Victims’ Commissioner new powers, she warned: “You can put as much legislation in place as you want, but with that you’ve got to give resources for the professionals to make sure that it’s delivered on the ground for victims.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The new Government inherited a prison system on the point of collapse and was forced to introduce an emergency release scheme to prevent a gridlock of the criminal justice system that would have seen police unable to arrest. The Sentencing Review will make sure no government ever finds itself in the same position again.

“Offences connected to domestic abuse and serious violence are excluded from SDS40. All those released are risk assessed and subject to strict licence conditions which if breached could see them recalled to prison.

“This Government is determined to ensure victims voices are heard and their rights are respected, which is why we are increasing the powers of the Victims’ Commissioner, rolling out independent legal advocates for rape victims, placing domestic abuse specialists in 999 call centres and implementing Domestic Abuse Protection Orders.”