BLUNKETT ORDERS INCREASE IN TAGGING

Prisoners To Be Released Early To Ease Overcrowding

Hundreds of prisoners convicted of nonviolent crimes will be released up to
two months early in an attempt to ease overcrowding which has pushed the
jail population close to crisis levels.

David Blunkett yesterday referred to the Strangeways prison riot as a
warning of what can happen when jails reach bursting point as he announced
a big extension of the electronic tagging scheme.

The home secretary said one of the reasons for the measure was to "help us
manage the prison population by reducing overcrowding".

The prison population of England and Wales has reached 70,197, close to the
maximum capacity of 71,800.

More space in prisons is urgently needed as a crackdown on street crime is
launched next month.

Some prison governors have been reluctant to free inmates early, under what
is officially known as home detention curfew, because of fears they would
be blamed if the prisoner reoffended.

From May, governors will be expected to release prisoners serving between
three and 12 months for the last 60 days of their sentence.

There would have to be "compelling reasons" not to release them on the
tagging programme, Mr Blunkett said.

Up to 1,350 prisoners, including burglars, fraudsters and minor drug
offenders, are expected to be tagged and released on top of the 1,800
already on curfew.

More than 44,000 prisoners have been released wearing tags in the last
three years and less than 2% have reoffended during the remainder of their
sentence, Mr Blunkett said.

Prisoners convicted of violent, sexual or serious drugs crimes will not be
eligible for tagging.

"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," Mr Blunkett said.

He hinted at the possible consequences of allowing jail overcrowding to get
worse, by alluding to the riot at Strange ways prison in Manchester in 1990.

Mr Blunkett's announcement came the day after a Downing Street summit to
address the crisis in street crime, and on the day that a Guardian/ICM poll
showed that voters' fear of crime had triggered a Tory revival.

After a week in which tabloid front pages have been dominated by pictures
of teenage criminals in "lawless Britain", the home secretary's speech was
littered with irritable attacks on national newspapers.

Mr Blunkett said he felt "bewilderment on the debate going on around me".

"What a lot of garbage. It's time people grew up in this country and helped
me."

Speaking to a London conference on prisons and probation, the home
secretary also announced that he would appoint a commissioner for victims
to "give victims a voice".

"For years the public has seen the entire system as being on the side of
offenders, not victims. Victims of crime are still, too often, treated with
indifference or with disrespect. I am not having that."