David Shipley

As hundreds of prisoners are released early on to the streets of Britain, it’s vital that the authorities keep track of these criminals. Worryingly, this doesn’t seem to be happening: several recently released prisoners who have been out of jail for two to six weeks told me they have still not been tagged. It’s anyone’s guess what these people are up to – and where they are going. Even probation officers struggle to get clear answers about whether or not tags have been fitted A backlog in fitting tags appears to be causing this situation. But there are rumours that there is a wider shortage of tags. Whatever the reason, offenders who are supposed to be under curfew after their release are not being monitored.

With the mass releases from prison underway, politicians have turned their attention to what happens after inmates leave jail. On Tuesday, Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary announced that when necessary budget hotels will be used to ensure that people released early have a roof over their heads. On Wednesday, the Times reported that Sadiq Khan has called for an ‘honest conversation’ about allowing some prisoners to ‘jump in the queue to get housing to avoid them reoffending again’.  If we are ever to fix our broken justice system then we must bring reoffending down To many people this will feel outrageous.

Today the government is releasing an estimated 1,700 prisoners early, under the scheme (SDS40) in which most inmates will only serve 40 per cent of their sentence. By the end of October, some 5,500 prisoners will have been released early. The idea is to take pressure off the prison system, and buy enough time to build more capacity. Life may become a little easier in our jails, but for the probation service, this means yet more pressure. Probation is a crucial part of the justice system. It is responsible for supervising people who are serving community sentences, and those who have been released from prison ‘on licence’.

Britain's prisons are full: over the August Bank Holiday weekend, there were fewer than 100 men’s prison places remaining. The number of spaces has now risen slightly but the crisis remains: our prisons are running out of space. This will have serious consequences – and it isn't good enough for Keir Starmer to keep blaming the Tories. Keir Starmer used a speech this week to blame the Tories Magistrates have been told to stop jailing people until after 10 September when Labour's early release scheme will take effect. Under that system, most prisoners will be released after having served 40 per cent of their sentence; on day one, around 2,000 prisoners will be let out.

Violent conflict, not traditionally a feature of life in Britain, arrived with brutal force this weekend. Angry mobs targeted mosques and attacked hotels housing migrants, setting at least one on fire. Businesses were looted, and groups of men have been seen gathering in force, holding weapons and attacking others. Although more than 400 arrests have been made so far, and no doubt more will follow, the police have often appeared outnumbered and unable to deploy sufficient force to quell the riots. The sight of officers in riot gear cowering against the wall of a hotel is a worrying one.  When the Prime Minister spoke on Sunday, he made it clear that 'those who participated will face the full force of the law' for their 'organised violent thuggery'.

Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood has bowed to the inevitable: acknowledging that 'our prisons are on the point of collapse', Mahmood has announced that, from September, most prisoners serving sentences of less than four years will be released 40 per cent of the way through their sentences instead of the halfway point, which is currently the case. It's a policy that will ease the pressure on prisons, but could end up backfiring badly. The plan will ease the pressure on prisons but could end up backfiring The Prison Governors’ Association advocated for this early release policy during the election campaign, and while it may seem that the government has no other choice, it will create serious risks.

Julian Assange was a changed man when he walked free from Belmarsh prison in south London this week. The Wikileaks founder's appearance was radically different from when he was arrested outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2019. It was a striking example of what prison can do to a person. The images of Assange – whose relief at being free was palpable – made me revisit my own time behind bars and what it did to me. Even the looming prospect of being locked up – the eighteen months from charge to sentencing had been very hard – changed me beyond recognition. I went back to my own photos from the day I was finally sentenced in February 2020. I struggle to remember that scared, fat, clean-shaven man.

When a vast, complex system fails it first does so slowly, and then all at once. I fear that the justice system in England and Wales is about to collapse. The prisons are effectively full. An average of 1,362 more people are imprisoned each week. What will happen when there’s no room for them? Last week the government announced that prisoners would be released 70 days early, hoping this would hold off disaster. While we were told that only low-risk prisoners would be subject to early release, on Tuesday that story unravelled when HM Inspector of Prisons published a report on HMP Lewes. The inspectors found that the early release scheme was 'undermining…safe release planning and risk management'.

Some prisoners will be freed up to 70 days early to ease overcrowding in jails. This isn't the first time the government has resorted to letting prisoners go before the end of their sentence: Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, announced in March that prisoners would be released up to 60 days early. This followed a 35-day early release policy announced in October. How long will ministers pretend that extending early release every couple of months is a serious solution to the dire state of Britain's prisons? 'Lower level offenders' are the most likely to reoffend Letting prisoners go early makes a mockery of the idea that sentencing should be transparent.

What happens when government policy meets an entirely unfit system? Today’s report on HMP Peterborough by HM Inspector of Prisons reveals a jail unable to handle the government’s early release scheme. Last October, in an effort to stop our prisons running out of room, Alex Chalk announced the End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme, under which prisoners would be released 18 days early. Last month, with the prisons almost full again, he amended the policy so that prisoners can now be released 60 days early.  Every recalled prisoner costs money to return to prison Today HM Inspector has revealed what this means in practice.

In prison, drugs kill. HMP Parc, a private prison in Wales managed by G4S, has seen six inmate deaths over a period of three weeks. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO), the official body tasked with investigating deaths in prisons, soon realised that 'at least' two of those deaths were drug-related. Imprisoned at HMP Wandsworth, I shared a cell with a regular spice smoker The PPO believe that these deaths involve ‘spice’ combined with 'another family of drugs'. Spice is a synthetic cannabinoid, popular in prison because it comes in the form of a liquid which can be impregnated on innocuous looking paper, making it easy to smuggle in. When smoked, it produces a sickly smell, and is often dangerous or deadly. It’s everywhere in our prisons.

The horror of the crimes of Joshua Jacques, who murdered his girlfriend and three members of her family in south London while high on drugs, is made all the worse because Jacques should never have been free to kill. The 29-year-old, who was jailed for life last week for the brutal murder of his partner Samantha Drummonds, her mother Tanysha, her grandmother Dolet, and her grandmother’s partner, Denton, in April 2022, had a string of convictions, including for drug offences and robbery. At the time of the murders, Jacques had been out of prison for less than six months. He was considered high risk, yet nothing was done to stop Jacques from destroying three generations of a family.

Prisons are terrifying places when guards lose control. The authorities retreat and angry prisoners are left in charge – until the cavalry arrives. That comes in the form of the National Tactical Response Group (NTRG), which resolves hostage situations, work 'at height' when prisoners have scaled buildings or refuse to leave safety netting on the wings or are standing on a table. If things aren't resolved amicably, the NTRG can instruct Tornado riot squads to storm prison wings. Worryingly, Britain's prison guards are becoming more reliant on these methods to regain charge of out-of-control jails. Last year, these squads were deployed nearly 800 times – a 40 per cent increase since 2022. The figures appear to show the trouble with relying on inexperienced guards to man our jails.

In prison, I met a lot of men who said they shouldn’t be there. They presented detailed mitigations, and listed all the flaws in the prosecution’s evidence. The truth is though, that most of us had been sentenced for crimes we’d committed. There were very few men inside who shouldn’t have been there. Mark, though, did not belong in prison. I first met Mark in HMP Wandsworth when he became my fourth cellmate. He was a quiet lad, with dark floppy hair which he hid behind, avoiding my gaze. It didn't take long to realise something was very wrong with him. We watched the news; we watched the soaps: Mark couldn’t tell the difference between them. He thought everything on TV was factual.