Prime Minister Andy Burnham has promised to accelerate the creation of additional prison spaces, attempting to quell the outrage over the plan for early release of prisoners, which threatens to overshadow his first important weeks in office.
This move by Burnham is a response to the increasingly loud calls to prevent the early release of two men convicted of manslaughter of a police officer in 2019. On Tuesday, announcing plans to increase the number of prison spaces, Burnham noted that the men convicted of the death of police officer Andrew Harper would not be released as part of the nationwide plan to address prison overcrowding.
Burnham stated on social media X that he understands “the depth of public concern” and reported that he had asked Justice Minister Alex Norris “to accelerate the development of a plan that will be presented to Parliament at the beginning of next month, to create an additional reserve of spaces in the penal system”. This step appears to be an attempt to change course after 10 Downing Street previously stated that it was not possible to exclude individual prisoners from early release measures.
Controversy over early release
This episode illustrates the scale of the problems faced by Burnham, who the ruling Labour Party appointed last month to replace the unpopular predecessor Keir Starmer. The controversy surrounding Burnham echoes a similar backlash to Starmer’s plans to release prisoners in the early days of his tenure in 2024.
On Tuesday, Burnham stated that he seeks a cross-party approach and suggested that measures to relieve the penal system could include accelerated deportation of foreign criminals, release of low-risk prisoners serving indeterminate sentences, or using women’s prisons to house male offenders.
Jesse Cole and Albert Bowers, convicted of the manslaughter of Harper, were found guilty after the police officer got caught on their car during a getaway and was dragged along the road, suffering fatal injuries. They were acquitted of murder charges related to the same crime.
“I am increasingly convinced that a more targeted approach to this issue will allow us to reduce the number of people released early and, in the case of the most serious offenders, such as those convicted of the manslaughter of police officer Harper, completely prevent their early release”, said Burnham.
Source: Bloomberg
