British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has outlined a new plan to address critical overcrowding in prisons, which includes placing male criminals in women’s prisons.
| PULSE POINTS |
❓ WHAT HAPPENED: British Prime Minister Andy Burnham proposed putting male inmates in female prisons on Tuesday, to ease Britain’s prison overcrowding crisis. 💬 KEY QUOTE: “It will be based on a range of options including the three strands of further work I asked him to initiate last week: increasing the rate of removal of foreign national offenders from the prison estate to their country of origin; finding an early resolution to the long-running injustice of IPP [Imprisonment for Public Protection] sentences, which could allow for the release of lower-risk prisoners; and making greater use of the entire prison estate including using the female estate for male offenders.” – Prime Minister Andy Burnham 📺 DETAIL: The proposal comes as the Prime Minister faces pressure to exclude Police Constable (PC) Andrew Harper’s killers from the government’s early release scheme. The scheme is designed to reduce overcrowding by allowing inmates who have served just 40 percent of their sentence to request early release. The scheme includes those convicted of manslaughter, such as the killers of PC Harper, who was dragged to death behind a car after responding to a burglary. “I understand the depth of public concern about the potential early release of those involved with the killing of PC Andrew Harper – and I share it,” said Prime Minister Burnham, who confirmed that his plans to reduce overcrowding include “making greater use of the entire prison estate including using the female estate for male offenders.“ 🎯 IMPACT: As the British prison system as a whole is operating at 99 percent capacity, the crisis has become acute, although critics of the Labour Party government believe it should be securing additional spaces, as it does with illegal migrant accommodation, rather than releasing criminals early. The introduction of male inmates into female prisons, which are also nearing maximum capacity, has the potential to spark safety concerns. 📺 FLASHBACK: Earlier this month, the Police Federation, an organization representing rank-and-file police officers, threatened to take the British government to court if PC Harper’s killers were released early. |
Image by Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street.
Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.
show less
.jpg){kind=link}
