Delays in prison parole 'costing pounds 10m a year'

Hundreds of prisoners are being detained unnecessarily and unfairly at a cost of millions of pounds to the taxpayer because of escalating delays in the parole system, according to internal prison service documents.

They show that more than half of the 5,000 prisoners eligible for parole each year are not being given decisions over their release until well after their earliest parole date has passed. In about half of those cases, the Parole Board will grant the prisoner immediate freedom.

Probation officers said yesterday that cases were being delayed by about eight weeks. With the costs of detention running at about pounds 500 a week per prisoner, they estimated that the additional bill was in the region of pounds 10m a year. And the hidden price of providing support to prisoners' families could push overall costs even higher. Their concern is evidently shared at Prison Service headquarters. Tony Butler, the director of services, has written to governors saying: "This is not acceptable. Delays are unjust and costly [in the cases where parole is granted] and likely to be a significant cause of discontent amongst prisoners."

Mr Butler's instructions to governors show that the problems were exacerbated because 300 cases last year had been "wrongly processed" and had to be re-examined. "This led to considerable delays in the Parole Board and the Parole Unit as additional interviews had to be arranged at short notice. The knock-on effect caused delays to other cases in the first half of 1995."

Incomplete reports and decisions to transfer prisoners - at short notice and just before parole hearings - to other jails had also contributed to the delays.

The disclosure comes as governors are having to cut education, welfare and work programmes, and possibly staffing levels in jails to meet budget cuts of up to 5 per cent this year.

Yesterday, Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said: "Napo warned ministers last February that the situation was getting out of control, but they have failed to deal with the problem. Cuts in the budget will make the situation impossible to remedy."

He said the decision to axe probation services - so far in 17 jails - will only add to the parole problems, because it is likely further to hinder preparation of reports. "Each time a prisoner serves longer than he or she needs, the sense of injustice mounts and the costs to the taxpayer accelerates".

Parole system changes in October 1992 meant that all those sentenced to four years or more had to apply for discretionary parole 26 weeks before their first eligibility date, halfway through their sentence. They are interviewed by a parole board member and their cases are considered by a parole panel. After a Home Office review, prisoners are supposed to be told whether they have qualified, three weeks before their release date.

Many prisoners with release dates for last September have still not been told whether or not they qualify. Probation officers say the increased workload caused by the record rise in the jail population - now at 52,521 - has contributed to the backlog.