High-risk inmates freed from jail early without enough risk planning under ‘chaotic’ scheme, inspectors find

Early release scheme ‘unravelling’ as high-risk prisoner freed early into homelessness only to return days later

Inspectors found rising violence, self-harm, drugs and a churn of men caught in a cycle of homelessness and offending at HMP Lewes (PA Media)

High-risk offenders have been freed from jail early without proper risk planning under the government’s “chaotic” emergency scheme to free up space in prisons, inspectors have warned.

In one case, a dangerous prisoner had his release date brought forward under the scheme, despite having a history of stalking, domestic abuse and being subject to a restraining order. He was a risk to children and subject to an exclusion zone which included the local authority responsible for trying to house him.

The government has repeatedly insisted there are safeguards in place to stop such criminals being released under the initiative, which was introduced in October and has since been extended from a limit of 18 days early release to 70.

But an inspection carried out at HMP Lewes over 11 days, immediately after the introduction of the 18-day scheme, found numerous examples of high-risk offenders being released at short notice without sufficient risk management planning.

Vindicating experts’ previous warnings, inspectors also found early-release prisoners were among the 20 per cent of inmates who were released into homelessness, further exacerbating concerns for their safety and that of the general public. In one such case, a high-risk inmate was recalled to the prison within days.

In response to the damning report, the Howard League for Penal Reform urged the government to start publishing data on the scheme’s operation, as Labour warned that “the Tories’ attempted cover-up of their prisoner early release scheme is unravelling”.

Inspectors said the uncertainty created by the scheme “was undermining good, safe release planning and risk management”, with release dates for some high-risk inmates “brought forward at short notice, forcing already stretched resettlement agencies to redraw existing plans from scratch in as little as two or three weeks”.

Around 20 per cent of the roughly 65 prisoners freed from HMP Lewes each month were released as street homeless (iStock/Getty)

Probation officers were not always aware of the scheme or how soon the prisoner they supervised would be released, with some appeals for the original release date to be reinstated – supported by managers in the prison – turned down despite clear risk issues, the inspection report states.

“Remarkably, homelessness was not a barrier to some of these early releases if it was judged that a further 18 days in prison was unlikely to allow for accommodation to be secured. In some instances, arrangements were so last-minute that licences were still being prepared on the day of release,” inspectors said.

During the inspection, a high-risk prisoner with significant class A drug misuse issues and a recent history of suicidal thoughts and self-harm was released from the segregation unit to homelessness under the scheme. This took place despite appeals for the decision to be reversed and staff having serious concerns for his and the public’s safety. He was recalled to custody before the inspection had ended, according to the report.

HM chief inspector Charlie Taylor said the inspection raised “serious concerns” with the scheme’s introduction, including “some chaotic planning for prisoners who were being released at short notice”. He added: “I hope that these are teething troubles and that as the scheme becomes embedded some of these problems will reduce.”

HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said the report raised ‘serious concerns’ about the end of custody supervised licence scheme (PA Media)

February’s visit marked inspectors’ third to HMP Lewes – a Victorian resettlement prison with a high churn of remand prisoners – since a concerning inspection in 2022.

This time, Mr Taylor took the unusual step of giving the prison six months’ notice, after a visit last April found that “things had got even worse”, with some inmates routinely getting less than an hour out of their cell each day, and a workforce plagued by shortages and low morale.

While the most recent visit was more encouraging, with Mr Taylor praising an “enthusiastic and ambitious governor, an invigorated leadership team” and improvement in staff morale, he warned: “There is a long way to go at Lewes, which remains a fragile jail with crumbling infrastructure in need of substantial investment.”

Levels of violence had increased steadily since the last inspection, with serious prisoner-on-prisoner assaults among the highest of all similar jails over the past year. Self-harm was similarly high and rising, with staff failing to answer when prisoners used their cell bells.

Drugs were much too easily available, driving the risk of debts and violence, inspectors said, with 28 per cent of prisoners testing positive for drugs in random testing. Fuelling this demand was the very poor provision of purposeful activity, with only a third of prisoners engaged in education or employment, inspectors said.

HMP Lewes housed 578 prisoners at the time of inspection (HM Inspectorate of Prisons)

And they warned that public protection work was not adequately staffed – with just four prisoners subject to phone and mail monitoring at the start of the inspection, despite the 578-strong prison housing a high number of prisoners remanded or convicted for domestic abuse or sexual offending.

In one case, a prisoner was known to have been grooming children by making phone calls from a previous prison, but there had been no work at Lewes to determine if he was still doing this, inspectors said.

Howard League chief executive Andrea Coomber KC said the report was the latest in a seemingly never-ending line to reveal “major problems in a prison system that has been asked to do too much, with too little, for too long”.

She added: “Even when given warning that the inspectors are coming, how can a governor be expected to turn a prison around when there are chronic staff shortages and insufficient facilities to meet the needs of a growing number of men on remand arriving from London and Hampshire, where jails are already full?”

Warning that “the Tories’ attempted cover-up of their prisoner early release scheme is unravelling”Labour’s shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “The public will rightly be worried to hear of cases where violent prisoners are being released without a proper assessment of the risk they pose to the public, and specifically children.

“It’s being left to prison inspectors to tell the public the truth because this government is refusing to level with them on the scale of the prisons and probation crisis. It’s time for the prime minister to come clean about what 14 years of Conservative chaos has done to our justice system.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “While we will always ensure there is enough capacity to keep dangerous offenders behind bars, this scheme allows us to ease short-term pressures on prisons by moving some lower-level offenders at the end of their custodial term on to licence.

“These offenders will continue to be supervised under strict conditions such as tagging and curfews, and the prison service can block the earlier release of any individual who poses a heightened risk.”