WHO would be a pensioner in Britain today?
First your winter allowance is taken away and now our streets have instantly become even more dangerous after 1,700 prisoners were released early yesterday.
The Government’s decision to free jailbirds who have served just 40 per cent of their sentence will inevitably lead to more crime on our streets.
And many women, who were the victims of domestic violence, will be at risk of being beaten and attacked again.
The vast majority of prisoners walking out of jails around the UK on Tuesday will only have served short sentences.
Scenes of them spraying champagne and bragging how they will vote Labour for the rest of their lives were distasteful and so insulting to their victims.
This is going to create even more victims of crime, as if we did not have enough already.
And, in all likelihood, they will not have had time to challenge their behaviours and their offending or come to terms with the harm their offences have caused.
Nor will they have likely been given educational or vocational training while inside because there is about a year’s waiting list to get on courses.
In my experience, long jail sentences tend to work far better than short ones.
When you have spent ten or 20 Christmas days away from your family, it makes you realise just how many prime years of your life you have lost.
Through my work doing shows for TV and YouTube, I’ve got to meet a number of prisoners who have been released after lengthy jail terms.
Every one of those who served long jail terms has been able to confront their offending and realise the harm they’ve done. Only then can they try to repent and rehabilitate themselves.
Sadly, most of the 1,700 prisoners released yesterday have not reached that position where they will never reoffend again.
Many of them are going to end up on the streets. There won’t be a stable family environment for them to go to for somewhere to lay their head. Nor is there likely be a job waiting.
So, if these prisoners find themselves homeless with no form of income, with winter approaching, there is one solution open to them to get dry, fed and housed.
And that is to commit more crime and go back to prison.
The people who are supposed to help stop prisoners reoffending are the Probation Service, who have already admitted they are going to be overwhelmed by the numbers being released.
Every offender, no matter how short their sentence, must be monitored by probation for at least 12 months after they leave jail. It is a huge burden on a service which is already overstretched and in crisis.
Probation officers union Napo has been taking calls from members who are scared about monitoring people they did not think should be released.
National official Tania Bassett says: “A number of our members have said, ‘I’ve got people coming out who I don’t think should be released early but I have no say in this’.”
It has been claimed that “a high proportion” of prisoners being released early will be domestic abusers.
The Government promised to limit the numbers of prisoners convicted of domestic abuse being released, refusing to include anyone serving sentences for non-fatal strangulation, coercive control, stalking and harassment.
I think they secretly know there will be a serious incident happening very soon, directly related to this decision.
Peter Bleksley
But if an abuser has been convicted of a more general crime, such as criminal damage or assault, they will be allowed out and will most likely return home — where the attacks will continue.
So, hundreds of women, who thought they were safe, are now in danger because of a purely political decision.
The politicians know what they have done but are keeping their fingers crossed and hoping for the best.
But I think they secretly know there will be a serious incident happening very soon, directly related to this decision.
We are told this early release plan is the only solution to a creaking prison system. But it is more than creaking, it’s broken and has been for years.
There are not enough bail hostel places for these people to be housed. The system is overwhelmed.
And yet any politician worth their salt should have realised that with the substantial increase in the amount of crime being committed, more prisons should have been built a long time ago.
What are they going to do about it? Another 3,000 prisoners are due to be released in October, which will cause more crime on our streets.
There is some capacity in police cells but that is very short-term and takes police officers off the street and away from what they are supposed to be doing.
Sending prisoners to Estonia, which was discussed last week, is another idea but not one I think has legs, due to cost implications.
Perhaps we can use military establishments run by private companies, so that we do not end up freeing more people who should still be inside.
But all of that would be a quick fix. What we really need to be doing is building more prisons — what our politicians should have been doing for decades.
It is appalling that nobody had the foresight to see this coming.
The core job of any government is to keep its people safe — and in this they have fundamentally failed.
