Letting prisoners out early is a nonsense!

The Government’s plan to release prisoners early is disgraceful and stems directly from its total failure to deal with the crisis in our prisons.  [break]

In 2002 the Home Office predicted that the prison population would be over 88,000 in 2007 and yet nothing was done. 

It is bad enough that the British public has been paying the £1m a week bill of keeping prisoners in court cells.  Now they are going to pay for their release with our safety.

These are not just a bunch of bus fare dodging youngsters.  Some of these are hardened criminals who will continue to plague this country and our town on release.  It is hard enough these days to get sent to prison, only the most serious cases result in custody being imposed.

Gordon Brown must accept responsibility for the prison crisis.  He froze the Home Office budget and refused to pay for extra prison places because he could not commission them through the Private Finance Initiative, thereby keeping them off the Government’s balance sheet. 

Last minute promises of extra prison places and pledges of funding by the Chancellor will not fool anyone. 

To top it all I read today that the prisoners released will also get £200 each to pay for their board and lodgings that would have been provided if they had remained in prison.  The worlds gone mad!