Today, over a thousand offenders will walk out of jail early as part of the government’s ongoing emergency scheme to ease the pressure on our crippled prison system. This time at least officials have dropped the pretence that no dangerous criminals will walk free earlier than a judge decided they should serve. Goodbye just deserts, hello justice by logistics.
It remains to be seen whether we’ll witness the previous disgraceful scenes of people celebrating with champagne in front of our prisons. But our criminal justice system is so hollowed out by complacency and incompetence, I wouldn’t bet against it happening again.
As well as undermining public confidence in the rule of law, these mass releases are not freeing up space in our prisons either.
The early release scheme, known as SDS40, lets certain types of prisoners be released from custody at the 40 per cent rather than the 50 per cent point of their original sentence.
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