Well Done or Too Rare? Why MPs need to ask about the Early Release of Prisoners

Questions in Parliament on Monday for Justice Secretary Robert Buckland and his ministerial team. No doubt MPs will want to know how the various elements of the justice system are adapting to the demands of lockdown, but it is the prisons about which they should be most concerned. In particular, they should ask why plans to reduce the population -considered necessary to minimise infection risks for prisoners and staff - are progressing so slowly.   

The overview of the eligibility criteria for the End of Custody Temporary Release scheme, published on Friday, offers some clues. The process looks complicated, with prisoners having to meet four sets of conditions if they are to be released on an electronic tag up to two months before their normal release date.

There are the legal parameters set out in the Statutory Instrument- basically a prisoner must be serving a standard determinate sentence with an automatic release point or be in custody for fine default or contempt. There are criteria set out in Directions from the Justice Secretary. So far he has issued two of these- on 7 and 24 April setting out exclusions and requirements relating to the offence committed by the prisoner, the length of sentence and the risks they pose.  A list of prisoners eligible for release based on the legal and Direction Criteria is being drawn up nationally.

Prisoners on the list must then be assessed locally to see if they fit so called Policy criteria- do they have suitable accommodation? Can their healthcare, including any Covid-19 considerations, be safely managed post-release? In bold type, it’s stated that “Fundamentally, they must not present a level of risk of harm, reoffending, failure to return or other significant challenge that cannot reasonably be managed in the community.”

There is a very strong presumption that prisoners who do not meet these policy conditions should not be released “unless there are exceptional circumstances to depart from this”.  The local assessment process includes some additional issues - previous failures on ROTL and behaviour such that the Governor considers it unlikely that the individual can be trusted to complete the licence.  Final decisions on release are not however made by the Governor but centrally on behalf of the Secretary of State to maintain consistency in decision-making.

Looked at one by one, many of these considerations look reasonable. For any Temporary Release provisions , the Secretary of State must be satisfied that there would not be an unacceptable risk of a prisoner committing offences or failing to comply with conditions whilst released; and the arrangements should not undermine public confidence in the administration of justice.

But taken as a whole, the process they give rise to looks cumbersome, demanding and unrealistic. How, for example, can Governors ensure that a release would not put the offender or others at any health or Covid-19 risks?  Surely the lockdown is in place precisely because we are all subject to such risks.

There are some apparent inconsistencies too.  The 7 April Direction requires prisoners to be assessed as having a low or medium Risk of Serious Harm level- but the overview guidance says that the process aims to ensure that “only …the appropriately low-risk are released”.  

Puzzling too is why despite a presumption that those who meet the statutory and policy criteria should be released, “not everyone who meets the eligibility criteria has to be or will be released”. The government says that releases may be targeted at specific prisons to relieve particular pressures in relation to Covid19. It’s true that overcrowding is concentrated in local prisons. But with the system 6,000 above its uncrowded capacity, it’s hard to see why anyone who meets the rigorous criteria for being allowed out should not go home- subject to the stringent conditions spelled out in the guidance.  This would give much needed breathing space to prisons of all kinds which are trying to manage with 80% of their staff at work.

Moreover, the most recent policy framework for Release on Temporary Licence makes much of Procedural Justice – the idea that when people believe the process of applying rules is fair they are much more likely to respect and comply with authority willingly . For prisons in this public health emergency, this would seem to be more important than ever. 

Under the Ash Cloud

Stuck in Lisbon on the way back from the 2010 UN Crime Congress in Brazil, the offer of a lift into Northern Europe seemed to good to miss. At Salvador airport, I had run into my friend Tapio Lepii Seppala who ran the national legal policy research institute in Helsinki.  He had attached himself  to the official Finnish delegation (the Minister of Justice Tuija Brax , her husband , special adviser and  senior civil servants) for whom the Finnish embassy in Lisbon was plotting a 4000 km  road trip home, under the ash cloud.

To my slight surprise, Tapio followed up the next day with a text to say that the minibus was hired-  for 16,000 Euros. They would happily drop me off near Paris. There was a catch.   They had to wait a few hours for their former President Marti Ahtisaari who was flying in from Venezuela and needed a ride home too.  The Nobel peace prize winning international peacemaker had been lecturing, it emerged later, in Iceland when the volcano erupted – and together with his assistant and bodyguard had embarked on an ambitious trip to circumvent the ash via New York, Caracas and now Lisbon. After some uncertainties- the bus had no toilet – I was invited to meet them all outside the VIP lounge at Lisbon airport.

We set off at 4 pm, joined by a couple of other Finns (ex minister Suvi Anne Siimes and a finance ministry official) who had been corralled together by the embassy -and three drivers. Two of the party had been up all night with what was politely referred to as stomach flu but spirits were otherwise high.  The destination for the 22-seater coach was a ferry from Sweden. For me it was less clear. Would a warship in Santander, a Eurostar from Paris or a ferry from Calais offer the quickest way back? Or would a long-distance lorry offer a route home?

Going was slow. Despite the three drivers, we stopped at two hourly intervals for what were mentioned as legal breaks, where sweets and biscuits were bought, and cigarettes smoked. Ahtisaari bought Toblerones to share, and one or two cans of beer were consumed. Long journey conversations followed. Some serious -the justice minister was concerned she would miss Thursday’s discussion of how many nuclear power stations were to be built. Some curious -what is the difference between dinner and supper in English and Finnish? Why are windmill wings shaped as they are? Who would win the forthcoming UK election?

As we meandered into Spain, immediately losing an hour, it emerged to my surprise we would be stopping for the night. Rooms had been booked at an empty conference centre near Valladolid where we arrived at half past midnight. Fortified with a beer at a local bar (but declining the whole crab tapas on offer), we took five hours rest before a 7 a.m. breakfast and 7.30 start. I was too late for HMS Albion, so Paris beckoned.

Climbing through the Pyrenees brought dozing, reading and political conversation worthy of the global elite I had unwittingly joined – what to do about Polisario and the Western Sahara - why Cyril Ramaphosa would have made a good South African President, Tony Blair’s efforts in Northern Ireland. Talk was punctuated with constantly changing ash updates from experts in Helsinki. The Finnish Prime minister called to check on progress. The journey was creating interest in the media.  After a 12-euro prix fixe lunch at possibly the worst restaurant in France, a team photo winged its way into a Helsinki evening paper.

As we headed through the Basque country to the vineyards of Bordeaux, my thoughts turned to where I would get off. We joked about being dumped in a lay-by on the Paris peripherique with the inevitable media questions about what happened to the mystery man in the press photo.  

The drivers and the bodyguard -who seemed in charge of the route - were not sure which way round Paris they would be going and I could not engage them in a serious discussion about my disembarkation. They pored over a map but only to identify a restaurant stop for the evening. We eventually sat down at the Entrecote in Tours where Ahtisaari hosted an excellent diner. Snails, frogs, raw beef and calvados were consumed, stomach flu notwithstanding. I took the opportunity between courses to establish that there was a nearby hotel and a train service to Paris, albeit strike affected of course. This I recognised was the last supper -or was it dinner?

We said our goodbyes and the bus headed off into the night to Germany, Denmark, Sweden- two more days and nights of driving. As I settled to a few hours sleep a text arrived.  All UK airports open. I might well have been better off biding my time in Lisbon.  But despite the continuing discomforts of a 12-hour train and ferry trip to London via Paris, Calais and Dover, I would not have missed the camaraderie of two days in the bus with Finland’s elite.

A Bit More on Scrutiny of Criminal Justice

Secretary of State Robert Buckland appears before the Joint Committee on Human Rights on Monday. He and Prisons and Probation Minister Lucy Frazer deserve credit for making themselves available to Parliamentary scrutiny before and during the recess, even if their evidence has not satisfied those who wish to see bolder action to safeguard the health of prisoners.  

The Committee has signalled that it will be asking him whether, inter alia, that to protect the right to family life for children of mothers in prison, he will institute early release for non-violent women offenders.

As well as pressing Buckland on this specific question, MPs and Peers may well want to clarify how many prisoners altogether have been released on Corona Virus Temporary Release and whether as was reported at the end of last week the scheme had been suspended.  Buckland will probably say that the prison population has fallen by 1,135 in the last fortnight with a proportionately greater fall among women than men. 

But given that the Howard League and Prison Reform Trust have threatened to seek judicial review of Buckland’s limited action to cut prison numbers in part because it is contrary to human rights duties to protect life and health- especially of those most vulnerable to the disease- the Committee has every right to press him on his plans and their implementation .  

The Human Rights Committee should also take an interest in the conditions facing people who remain in detention and how these are being monitored. The UK National Preventive Mechanism, comprising the 21 statutory bodies that independently monitor places of detention wrote to Buckland on 30 March but have not so far published any reply from him.

As well as raising the need to reduce detained populations to mitigate the inherent risk of maintaining people in close confinement, the NPM asked how the government will ensure skype, adapted mobiles and any other forms of contact are available to prisoners in the absence of visits. Harriet Harman should ask for an update on this as well as how the Prison Ombudsman and Independent Monitoring Boards are fulfilling their duties during the crisis.  

The Justice Committee have an opportunity to put similar questions to Chief Inspector of Prisons Peter Clarke on Tuesday when they take evidence from him in their relaunched inquiry on the ageing prison population.  Clarke has so far refrained from making public statements on what prisons should be doing to manage the crisis– ironic given that their inspection methodology across all forms of detention “consists of a series of broad thematic judgements known as healthy establishment tests”.

The Prison Governors Association -who were wrong in my view not to support Clarke’s proposals for one day light touch inspections- were however fully justified in asking him to join with others to seek a significant reduction in overcrowding. I don’t know why he hasn’t done so. MPs should ask him. 

Sir Bob Neill’s committee should also ask whether Clarke has been consulted about the new accommodation that is being constructed at pace to provide hundreds or even thousands of new single cells. If he is going to inspect them, its surely better for the prison service to involve him in their design.

These and many other matters could be raised by MPs - not least Buckland's new shadow David Lammy -in Justice questions scheduled for Tuesday. At the time of writing, they are still on the Order paper, although there's a suggestion they have been postponed.

If that's the case, Lammy should ask an Urgent Question on  the releases at least, as soon as he can.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Update on Scrutiny of Criminal Justice in a Time of Crisis

In these extraordinary times, everyone is having to adapt to the requirements of social distancing- not least the institutions that hold the authorities to account. There’s been much talk today of the need for Parliament to resume as soon and as effectively as possible. Although it’s in recess for another week – normally a period in which neither House meets to conduct business- work has continued not least in relation to criminal justice.

Four emergency Statutory Instruments (SIs) came into force last week; to allow prison governors to release prisoners temporarily; to allow those prisoners to be accommodated in Probation hostels and to access means tested benefits during the period of their release. The fourth enables the increased demand for electronic tagging to be met by a new provider – Attenti .  

There was no opportunity for MPs to debate the measures – and disappointingly no impact assessments attached to the SI’s despite an assurance in the explanatory memoranda that there would be. The Justice Committee were however able to ask questions of Justice Secretary Robert Buckland and Prison and Probation Chief Jo Farrar on Tuesday.  They concentrated on the early release provisions, asking for estimates of the numbers and rates of release, why low risk Category D prisoners were not being prioritised for release, whether all prisoners really need to be tagged.  

The session seems to have formed part of a belatedly established inquiry into the impact of Coronavirus on prison probation and courts,  announced on 31 March – three weeks after the Home Affairs Committee announced their inquiry into Home Office preparedness for Covid19. But at least the Justice Committee has been able to hold two meetings with Buckland and will question prison and probation minister Lucy Frazer this week.  

As well as focusing on how probation is managing to operate in the current climate, Tuesdays’ hearing should also look at three questions that were neglected in last week’s meeting with Buckland.

The first is staffing. Prisons are really struggling with staff either sick or self-isolating. Some staff have been redeployed from HQ into jails and Operation  Quickthorn could be activated to allow troops to backfill "non facing" roles . But under what circumstances would the military be involved, what exactly would they do and under whose authority. Could they assist probation as well?

The second question relates to the 500 new prison places being created, how they will be used and what physical conditions they will provide.  There’s been concern expressed by reformers that expanding capacity in this way will mean that prisoners eligible for temporary release may be kept in prison instead and that the numbers freed will not reach the estimated 4,000 let alone the 15,000 reportedly recommended by Public Health England.

Third, the Justice Committee should ask about the work of the bodies charged with monitoring prisons and probation. Independent Monitoring Boards are continuing to monitor both prisons and immigration detention during the pandemic, though “much of this will necessarily be remote monitoring”. The Prison and Probation Ombudsman cannot read and reply to letters from prisoners who wish to make complaints.   The PPO has also ceased all visits to prisons so their investigation of fatal incidents – including deaths of prisoners from Coronavirus is affected. They “will continue to be informed of all deaths and will open new investigations as normal, but it is likely that we will need to extend our timetables and/or suspend cases until we are able to gather information and investigate safely”.  

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons announced this week that they have created – in collaboration with HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and the Ministry of Justice -an adapted approach for the Coronavirus period, involving short scrutiny visits to prisons. These will focus on core issues such as healthcare, nutrition and hygiene; contact with families, friends and the outside world; legal rights; use of time and the need for meaningful human contact; support for those at risk of self-harm and suicide; and support and risk management for those being released.

What looks like a pragmatic approach from the Inspectorate received short shrift from the Prison Governors Association who consider that the visits are not needed and will put undue pressure on governors and their staff.  Somewhat disturbingly, the PGA’s strongly worded response talked of the "fear of inspection"some of their members have, and the likelihood that no tangible benefits will result from any inspection report. 

Whatever the Governors say, there is no doubt that some form of monitoring must take place. The UN and WHO have stated that monitoring bodies, should continue to have access to places of detention. The Council of Europe’s (CoE) Committee for the Prevention of Torture has said that monitoring by independent bodies remains an essential safeguard against ill-treatment. The question must be not whether inspection visits take place but how.  

The CoE Commissioner for Human Rights argued this week that prisons need a humane and comprehensive crisis plan which should be formulated “in consultation and co-operation with relevant human rights stakeholders, in particular National Preventive Mechanisms, other independent monitoring bodies, national human rights structures and human rights NGOs”.

MPs should ask Miss Frazer whether this is the approach that is being adopted in England and Wales- as a concrete example, are the plans for new build accommodation being discussed in advance with inspectors to check they meet minimum standards? 

This would indicate the kind of collaborative approach which is likely to serve the system best during the crisis and protect the health of those involved in it.

Scrutiny of Justice in a Time of Crisis

Good news that the government plans to reduce pressure on prisons by releasing 4,000 low risk prisoners up to two months early.  Credit’s due to the excellent work of the Howard League and Prison Reform Trust among others in pressing the Ministry of Justice to do the right thing.  And on the government side, one has to admire the tactic of wheeling out Michael ‘Prison Works’ Howard to provide political cover for an administration that pre-Covid 19 made so much of the need for prisoners to serve longer spells inside before release.    

But is today’s announcement enough? The uncrowded capacity of the system was 75,380 at the end of February and last Friday the population was 82,589.  So even if numbers fall by 4,000, many prisons may still struggle to avoid enforced cell sharing.     

There are other important questions to be clarified.  Do all the released prisoners really need to wear electronic tags? Is there capacity to achieve that?  What are the strict conditions prisoners will have to adhere to?  What will be the process for assessing eligibility? And most important when will it start?

The government’s press release says that the releases will be phased over time but can start from next week. It also says that the “Statutory Instruments to allow these releases to take place will be laid on Monday.” 

But Parliament is in recess so it’s not clear to me at any rate what procedure will be used to sign them into law. Surely some scrutiny of the government’s proposals is required before it’s done.

As it happens, on Tuesday the Committee will hear from Justice Secretary Robert Buckland about COVID19 and the justice system but “due to restrictions on Parliamentary capacity, partly caused by the virus, the meeting will be held online and in private. A summary note will be published shortly after.”   

This doesn’t seem good enough. On the same day the Transport Committee will be questioning Secretary of State for Transport on the impact of Coronavirus on UK transport. The session will take place virtually and will be broadcast live. There seems no good reason why the Justice Committee meeting should not be scheduled at a time when it can be broadcast too. There is considerable public interest not only in the release but the search for publicly owned sites which can be used to house temporary prison accommodation.   

It may seem churlish to complain about the lack of public involvement when politicians, officials and public servants in all departments are facing such extraordinary pressures. But as Penelope Gibbs has shown in respect of courts, without scrutiny, things can go wrong despite the best of intentions – and sometimes even because of them. Allowing independent access to justice institutions should remain an important priority.  

Chief Prison Inspector Peter Clarke was probably right to suspend his team’s inspection programme but promised to “seek alternative ways of fulfilling our obligation to monitor, understand and report on the treatment and conditions in prisons and places of detention”.  I’d like to see a set of expectations drawn up on how prisons should be dealing with the crisis and some kind of independent monitoring of how they are doing particularly in respect of medical care. For example, the Prison Rules require a medical practitioner “to report to the governor on the case of any prisoner whose health is likely to be injuriously affected by continued imprisonment or any conditions of imprisonment. The governor shall send the report to the Secretary of State without delay, together with his own recommendations”. How is this being interpreted?

Some input is needed too from the Sentencing Council to ensure a more sparing use of prison is made by judges and magistrates during the crisis. The experience of imprisonment is undoubtedly harsher at the moment with no work or education and more time in cell. Should this not be reflected by courts reducing sentence lengths and wherever possible suspending prison sentences? More radically still, the MoJ should enable custodial sentences to be deferred where a defendant has been on bail. The advantage of releasing low risk prisoners from the back door of prison will be eroded if low risk offenders continue to enter through the front door of sentencing.    

Specifically, the Council should say something about the sentencing of offences related to the Corona Virus Act 2020 or to the emergency more generally.  Justice Committee Chair Bob Neill said last week that he thought Justice Secretary Robert Buckland would want the courts to deal with these “swiftly and condignly”. But that’s less a matter for Neill and the Justice Secretary than it is for the Council who should urgently give it some more measured consideration.