EARLY PRISON RELEASE ESSENTIAL, SAYS BLUNKETT

EMERGENCY measures have to be taken to ease prison overcrowding, David
Blunkett said yesterday, defending proposals to release thousands of
prisoners early.

The Home Secretary told a conference in London: "If anyone watching,
reporting or listening today seriously believes that a further exponential
rise in the prison population for short-term prison sentences and
first-time offenders is the way to ensure our safety, then they are sorely
deluded." He said the public should remember the Strangeways riots, which
were partially caused by overcrowding in the jail.

Thousands of prisoners serving between three and 12 months are to be let
out of jail two months early and electronically tagged. Mr Blunkett is also
negotiating for funding for an emergency building programme: 3,000 prison
cells in prefabricated blocks will be placed in the grounds of Category C
and D jails.

The prison population has risen from 66,000 in January to a record 71,100.
Many prisons are at bursting point. Yesterday's announcement will see an
estimated 3,150 offenders considered to be no danger to the public let out
on electronic tags at any one time, compared with 1,800 now.

The early release scheme will mean that a prisoner given a 12-month jail
term could be out after serving four months. All prisoners serving 12
months or less are released automatically without supervision after serving
half their sentences. They will now be eligible to be released two months
earlier. Mr Blunkett said that prison governors would have to have
"compelling reasons" for refusing to allow an inmate serving three to 12
months early release.

The Home Secretary rounded on his criticis in the media, lobby groups and
the Opposition. He said he felt bewildered by the debate going on around
him. "What a lot of garbage," he said. "It's time people grew up in the
country and helped me."

He won support from prison governors and the Probation Service for the
measures. Mike Newell, of the Prison Governors'Association, hoped that
governors would now be more willing to allow prisoners out under home
detention curfew. "I think there has been a reluctance by governors to move
away from what was quite a strict risk assessment criteria," he said.

Oliver Letwin, Shadow Home Secretary, said that the changes would undermine
the way judges chose to sentence criminals.