THOUSANDS WILL BE FREED EARLY TO EASE JAILS CRISIS

Thousands of prisoners are to be let out of prison early without
support from probation workers in a desperate measure by the Home
Secretary to reduce the prison population.

David Blunkett said there would be an expansion of the electronic
tagging scheme that would allow 1,350 prisoners serving sentences of
between three and 12 months to go home early. He said that inmates
would be "presumed" to be safe to release unless there were
"compelling reasons" to think otherwise.

The change in emphasis in the use of the tagging scheme follows a
report in The Independent last month that tens of thousands of
prisoners eligible for early release were being kept locked up. Leaked
documents showed that some prison staff did not agree with the scheme
and prison governors were often afraid that released inmates would
reoffend.

Mr Blunkett was forced to act as the prison population in England and
Wales last week hit crisis point of 70,100, just a few hundred short
of capacity. He said the extension of the home detention curfew scheme
(HDC) would "help us manage the prison population by reducing
overcrowding".

The Home Secretary said that from the beginning of May, offenders who
had not been convicted of violent, sexual or serious drugs offences
"will be presumed to be releasable" 60 days before their normal
release date.

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National
Association of Probation Officers, said that staff would not be
involved in supervising the released prisoners. He said: "I am worried
that the Home Secretary is silent on whether they will get any
rehabilitation help."

A Home Office spokeswoman said that the released inmates would be
monitored from a distance by staff from private security companies who
would ensure that they abided by a night-time curfew. She said: "The
actual HDC is only about getting you back to an address and back to a
routine. It is about getting people back into the community."

Glen Smyth, chairman of Metropolitan Police Federation, said he was
concerned about reoffending. He said: "Unless they have got a job or
some training to go to they are going to be at a loose end when they
are not under the curfew. Most crime is opportunistic in its committal."

When HDC was introduced three years ago there were hopes that it would
result in the release of 30,000 prisoners a year. But because of the
fears of governors, only 25 per cent of those eligible to be released
have been allowed out. Their caution has ensured that re-offending
rates of prisoners on HDC have been good.

Mr Blunkett said that, in three years, 44,000 prisoners had been
released on HDC with less than 2 per cent offending during their time
under curfew. He said: "It is far better that someone walks out of
prison under escort, with a place to live and with an electronic tag
round their ankle than with a bin sack of possessions, no home, no
chance of a job and no incentive to go straight."

Nevertheless, the Home Secretary acknowledged that his announcement
was something of an emergency measure. "In the short term we have to
ease the burden on the Prison Service," he said.

Mike Newell, chairman of the Prison Governors' Association, welcomed
the announcement and said that Britain was at last turning away from
an American-style penal system where "the prison population goes up
and up, you are spending more and more public money and there is no
effect on crime".