Early release prisoners return to jail after becoming homeless

Prison

Criminals released early from jail to ease the prison overcrowding crisis have returned within days after ending up homeless.

Watchdogs have uncovered cases of prisoners freed up to 18 days before their scheduled release date who had been recalled to jail for breaching the terms of their licence.

Some had been brought back behind bars within 18 days, before even their original release date had passed, according to HM inspectors.

The watchdogs blamed prison bosses for releasing prisoners without an address to go to, which meant they ended up homeless, increasing the risk of breaching their licence or reoffending.

The sudden recall of offenders, first uncovered by prison newspaper Inside Time, threatens to undermine measures to tackle the overcrowding crisis that were introduced after warnings that the Government could run out of prison places this spring.

‘Lower risk’ criminals released

Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, announced a package of emergency schemes last month to reduce overcrowding including extending the early release of prisoners from 18 days before their scheduled date to up to 60 days.

The scheme, known as End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL), applies to the most crowded jails and gives governors powers to release “lower risk” criminals.

Sex offenders, convicted terrorists, category A prisoners and all violent offenders serving four or more years are excluded. However, violent offenders serving under four years are eligible, as are burglars, thieves, shoplifters and fraudsters serving any fixed-term sentence.

The prison inspectors discovered the recall problem at HMP Peterborough, where they found around 30 per cent of prisoners in the past year had been released homeless. They are understood to have found similar recalls of early release prisoners at two other jails inspected in recent months.

“Despite them having no address to go to, managers had been obliged to release some men 18 days early under the ECSL scheme, only for some to return to prison before even their original release date had passed,” said the inspectors in their report.

It is understood the recalls related to breaches of licence conditions but not necessarily for committing a further offence. This is likely to have included failing to attend appointments with probation or drug agencies or breach of a restraining order barring them from certain geographical areas.

“Being homeless would not be a breach, but would obviously increase the chances of all of the above happening. You might not be able to pay to get to an appointment, or you might stray into an exclusion zone to shower at a friend’s house,” said a source.

‘Short-term relief at cost of long-term pain’

Pia Sinha, director of the Prison Reform Trust and a supporter of the ECSL, criticised the way it was being implemented. She said: “A prison system so narrowly focused on just getting through the day encourages decision-making which provides short-term relief at the cost of longer-term pain.

“Releasing someone early with nowhere to live, only to see them return to prison days or weeks later, is a tragic example of this in action.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “Only lower-level offenders who are a matter of days before their automatic release date are being considered for the ECSL Scheme and if early release under the scheme presents a significantly greater risk the case can be escalated and blocked.

“We know having a safe place to stay helps cut crime which is why we’re investing millions to provide temporary accommodation on release to offenders at risk of becoming homeless to stop them reoffending and keep the public safe.”

Meanwhile, HMP Northumberland has become the first jail forced to evacuate prisoners from cells because of crumbling concrete.

The discovery of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in two of the prison’s house blocks had forced their closure. It is the sixth prison found to contain RAAC but is the first forced to take cells out of use. It was restricted to ancillary buildings at the other jails.

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