The situation is worse than I thought it was,” Keir Starmer said of the state of English and Welsh prisons soon after becoming Prime Minister. “I’m pretty shocked that it’s been allowed to get into that situation. It’s reckless to allow them to get to that place.”
Within days of his remarks, Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, announced thousands of prisoners would be eligible for early release – after serving 40 per cent of their sentences, rather than half – come September. “From an inspectorate of prisons point of view, anything that reduces the number of people in prisons has to be a good thing,” Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, told me. “But, we are frequently critical of the preparation that’s done for release of prisoners.”
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