How odd. It was only in May that, Starmer, the former lawyer quizzed Rishi Sunak – in detail – about the issue at Prime Minister’s Questions, when he demanded a guarantee that “none of the criminals… released early are high risk”. We now learn that Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood plans to free criminals, including some convicted of violence, just 40 per cent of the way through their sentence rather than the current halfway point. Camilla Tominey.
Blogger: so now we know. Not only did Labour manifestly deceive voters about this issue but has hit the very obvious problem any who have been connected - myself included - to the workings of our prison system will instantly spot.
The Great British Public broadly believes that 'all bad people' go to prison when, in fact, very, very few do.
As a JP 20 years ago, on many occasions, my colleagues and I tried to jail all the truly heinous individuals who came before us.
We very rarely succeeded.
As one early example, representing very many, I think of the nauseating flasher who exposed himself to a young teenage girl who lived next door to him. In the post-war period - jail was guaranteed for this vile creature but by 1995 - you had zero chance of sending him down.
As a new magistrate, to say I was shocked would be a grave understatement. The examples piled up year after year - until as a Chairman and also Magistrate Sitting In Crown Court As A Judge - I could see no further point in remaining on the Bench.
Had the 'bad guys' been jailed when their colours were first recognised - many would have not continued offending but the result of this absurd leniency meant that they were permitted to keep on offending - perhaps for years - before finally entering prison.
There is an assumption that there are a great many 'nice guys' in prison. The reality is that there are very few indeed. It is extremely difficult to get yourself jailed, today. Your dreadful behaviour or persistent serious offending can continue without proper punishment for years on end.
As for youth offenders - locking up even the most egregious of individuals is probably 500% more difficult still. (I never sat in Youth Courts - my frustration with the inefficacy of that system meant that I could not face the prospect.)
Even so, I saw many hundreds of records of a great many 20 year olds, all with very lengthy histories of serial offending as youngsters. At no point of their crime sprees had sentencing ever taken place which did anything other than mildly inconvenience them.
The system CREATED long-term offending by the absurd removals of deterrence.
All of this means that there are not all that many 'fairly decent chaps who have erred somewhat and are now desperate to become decent citizens' held in our prisons.
Labour knows that it will be releasing shedloads of unrepentant scum back into our society - and does not care a jot.
"By their fruits ye shall know them."
