Risk checks ditched to ease jail crowding

Risk checks ditched to ease jail crowding

By Tom Harper, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:58am BST 24/06/2007

Tens of thousands of prisoners will be released without any checks on whether they pose a threat to the public.

Up to 25,000 convicts, including burglars, thugs and drug dealers, will be freed early each year without undergoing "risk assessment" - a key plank of the public protection system set up to deal with dangerous criminals.

In addition, probation officials will not be obliged to check whether the addresses provided by the departing felons are genuine, allowing them simply to "disappear".

The revelations, contained in an email from Roger Hill, head of the Probation Directorate, contradict claims by Ministry of Justice officials last week that all convicts would be checked before release.

The email, sent to all 42 chief probation officers in England and Wales and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, reads: "The Probation Service is not required to conduct a risk assessment or an accommodation check for these prisoners prior to their release on ECL (End of Custody Licences)."

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "It beggars belief that the Government cannot be bothered to take the necessary steps to evaluate the threat these prisoners pose to the public.

"Labour's assurances last week about risk assessments now ring hollow and it blows any previous guarantees they have made out of the water."

Risk assessments predict whether convicts are likely to re-offend, based on factors including age, previous convictions and social background. The checks, which determine how much supervision freed prisoners will need, are carried out on all those who have served a sentence of at least a year. It is understood that 5,000 of the 25,000 criminals to be released are in that category but will escape the assessment because of a lack of resources.

The Government announced last week that up to 25,000 criminals would go free 18 days early each year, after the prison population reached a record 81,016. They will be serving between four weeks and four years, excluding those jailed for serious violent or sexual crimes. The first 2,000 will be released on Friday, and the rest over the next 12 months. Each will be given nearly £200 spending money to compensate them for the 18 days of lost prison "bed and board".

The Ministry of Justice pledged that the convicts would remain under the supervision of the Probation Service. However, front-line officers estimate they would need an extra 250 staff, at a cost of £10 million, to deal with the extra case load. Lord Falconer, the Justice Minister, has allocated £300,000.

The National Offender Management Service said ministers had seriously underestimated the number of inmates who would clog up prisons under new "indeterminate sentences for public protection" for serious offenders.

Critics fear that many of those freed will go on to commit violent crime. In 2005, Mary Ann Leneghan, 16, was raped and murdered by four men on probation for minor offences in Reading, Berkshire.

Seventy-three per cent of prisoners who serve less than 12 months re-offend within two years, according to the Home Office. Up to eight in 10 of those being freed on Friday are serving less than 12 months.

Brian Caton, the general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, said: "This is an ill thought-out, short-term fix that will go dramatically wrong. A large proportion of those released will re-offend and be back in prison, where prisoners are already crammed three to a cell. The criminal justice policy is a shambles."

Meanwhile, a Bill being published next week threatens to swell the jail population by 3,000 a year, according to the National Association of Probation Officers. So-called "super Asbos" - Violent Offender Orders, or Voos - will restrict the movement of criminals with a history of violence, or those who have just left jail.

But Harry Fletcher, spokesman for the association, said: "Over half of all Asbos are breached. Given the personalities of the individuals involved, the breach rate for the Voo will be even higher."

The Ministry of Justice said: "Prisoners who are released will be required to meet their probation officer and to have regular contact after that."