The Prime Minister has been issued with a warning that he is “rolling the dice” by releasing prisoners early.
In September thousands of prisoners will be released early in an attempt to reduce overcrowding.
Martin Jones who heads up the probation service and is the ex-parole board chief executive has warned Sir Keir Starmer that staff in the probation service do not have the resources to cope with thousands of prisoners being released early.
He said the probation service will be under increasing pressure and accepts there is “no risk-free options” in the government’s decision.
Speaking to The Times Jone said, “I think it’s inevitable, being realistic about it, that things will go wrong.”
“I wish we could live in a perfect world where that doesn’t happen.
“What I think you should, you should start to see, at least, is that if people have to focus on those, that they start to identify where things go wrong, and they draw lessons from that quite quickly.”
Jones added, “I also think there’s a little bit of a numbers game to some extent, you’re rolling the dice all the time in relation to serious further offences.
“You know, ultimately, if you release thousands of people, a number of those cases will ultimately, sadly, there will be things that will go wrong.”
An MoJ spokesman said, “The new Government inherited a prison system in crisis, which is putting pressure on the wider justice system, particularly probation staff.
“Because of this, the Government has been forced into taking difficult but necessary action so it can keep locking up dangerous criminals and protect the public.
“The new Lord Chancellor announced in July that she was scrapping the old early release scheme introduced by the previous Government and replacing it with a system which gives probation staff more time to prepare for a prisoner’s release.
“The Government has also set out plans to recruit over 1,000 new trainee probation officers by March 2025 to meet additional demand.”
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