Early Release, Prison Reform, and the Victims the Justice System Is Failing

 Trigger warning: This post discusses sexual assault, childhood abuse, violence, grooming, drugs, and other potentially distressing subjects. Please feel free to read a different post if these topics may upset or harm you.

While I understand the anger surrounding the early-release scheme, part of me believes that the public does not fully understand what is happening inside the prison system.

Before I continue, I want to make something clear: I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. I was abused from the age of three until I was seventeen. It was a daily occurrence that continued throughout almost my entire childhood.

Because of my experiences, this is an extremely difficult and personal subject for me to discuss.

I am currently serving an indeterminate life sentence, so the early-release scheme will not affect me personally. What I am about to say may upset or anger some people, but I ask that you bear with me and try to understand the point I am making.

A Victim Is Still a Victim

A crime is a crime, regardless of the offence.

There has been discussion in the news about Debbie Adlam, the mother of a police officer who was killed, and her attempt to prevent her son’s killers from being released early. I completely understand why a grieving mother would fight against the early release of the people responsible for her son’s death.

She also raised concerns about sex offenders.

I do not like sex offenders, paedophiles, groomers, or anyone who abuses children. Because of what happened to me, I have deeply personal reasons for feeling that way.

However, we also need to ask some difficult questions.

What is the difference, from the victim’s point of view, between being sexually assaulted and being stabbed, beaten, threatened with a gun, or seriously injured during a robbery? What about the people who give drugs to children and force them to sell those drugs? What about human traffickers who exploit children or smuggle people into dangerous situations where they may die?

The offences may be different, and the risks posed by individual offenders must be assessed properly. But the people harmed by those crimes are all victims.

If someone assaulted your wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, child, parent, grandparent, brother, or sister, how would you feel? If someone broke into your home and injured somebody you loved, would you consider that crime unimportant simply because it was not a sexual offence?

Of course not.

That is my point. Victims of every kind of crime deserve to be taken seriously.

The Early-Release Scheme Is a Farce

The government says certain prisoners will not qualify for early release. Sex offenders, terrorists, and life-sentence prisoners are among those excluded.

However, everyone who enters prison goes through the same basic process: arrest, court, conviction, sentencing, and imprisonment. Every prisoner is also a human being.

That does not mean every offence is equally serious or that every prisoner should receive the same sentence. It means that the justice system should be fair, consistent, and focused on protecting the public.

If rehabilitation is necessary, it should be available to everyone. If somebody poses a genuine danger, that risk should be managed properly. Decisions should be based on evidence, behaviour, risk, and public safety—not simply on political pressure or the need to create emergency prison spaces.

The real question is this: why has the government allowed the prison system to reach a point where emergency early release is considered necessary?

Who Created the Prison-Capacity Crisis?

Over roughly the last fifteen years, numerous prisons have been closed, while only a small number of replacements have been built.

So whose fault is it that the country is running out of prison spaces?

The answer seems clear to me: successive governments have allowed this crisis to develop.

The public is then given slogans and selective information designed to make emergency policies sound reasonable. Meanwhile, the deeper problems remain untouched.

I have been in prison for approximately thirty-five years. From what I have witnessed, prisons have become human warehouses and money-making operations.

There is very little meaningful rehabilitation. Resettlement support is inadequate, and many people receive nowhere near enough help when preparing for release.

Thousands of prisoners are reportedly being held beyond their minimum tariff dates. This contributes to overcrowding, but the reasons why people remain imprisoned are rarely explained properly to the public.

At the same time, large numbers of released prisoners are eventually recalled to custody.

Where is the effective resettlement?

Where is the rehabilitation?

Where is the consistent support from probation services?

Releasing people without stable housing, treatment, employment opportunities, mental-health support, or proper supervision does not protect the public. It simply creates a cycle in which people leave prison, struggle, breach their licence conditions or reoffend, and are then returned to an already overcrowded system.

Prisoners Must Also Make Choices

The prison system has a responsibility to provide genuine opportunities for change. However, prisoners also have personal responsibility.

There are some realities that must be acknowledged:

1. Meaningful rehabilitation is extremely limited in many prisons.
2. Completing courses does not automatically prevent somebody from reoffending. A person must make a genuine decision to change their behaviour.
3. Prisoners who choose to become drug-free may give themselves a better chance of rebuilding their lives after release.
4. Those who return to drugs, alcohol, violence, and criminal behaviour are more likely to return to prison.

People need support, but they must also choose to use that support.

The problem is that prisons are full of drugs. Drug-related debt contributes to bullying, intimidation, corruption, and serious violence. Without tackling addiction and the supply of drugs inside prisons, claims about rehabilitation will continue to sound hollow.

Where Is the Rehabilitation?

If the government is going to reform the justice system, it needs to do it properly.

Do not simply announce that certain categories of prisoners will not be released and pretend that the problem has been solved.

Provide effective rehabilitation for every prisoner who needs it.

Help people address addiction.

Provide proper education, psychological treatment, skills, housing support, employment preparation, and release planning.

Assess each prisoner carefully and manage genuine risks.

Most importantly, stop making promises to victims and the wider public while continuing to operate a system that repeatedly fails both.

Prison Labour and Private Profit

Many parts of the prison system have been privatised or outsourced. Depending on the prison, this may include education, healthcare, canteen services, maintenance, workshops, and other departments.

Over the years, I have been held in many prisons. I have seen prisoners working on contracts connected to large outside companies, including tool-hire and welding-related work.

Prisoners may receive only a very small weekly wage for this labour.

If an ordinary business outside prison employed people for such low wages, serious questions would be asked about exploitation. Yet when it happens inside prison, it is often defended as work experience or rehabilitation.

That raises important questions.

Who benefits financially from prison labour?

Where does the money go?

How much is being reinvested into prisoners’ education, rehabilitation, treatment, and preparation for release?

Work can be an important part of rehabilitation. It can teach responsibility, discipline, teamwork, and useful skills. But it must be meaningful, ethical, and connected to a genuine pathway towards employment after release.

Otherwise, it risks becoming exploitation disguised as rehabilitation.

The Entire System Needs Reform

The justice system needs a massive overhaul. In fact, the political decisions surrounding prisons also need to be examined.

Victims are being failed.

The public is being failed.

Prison staff are being placed under enormous pressure.

Prisoners who genuinely want to change are being failed.

The answer is not simply to release people early because there are no available cells. Nor is the answer to keep people locked away indefinitely without meaningful rehabilitation, treatment, or a realistic route towards progression.

The answer is to build a justice system that protects the public, respects victims, holds offenders accountable, and provides genuine opportunities for change.

Prisons should not be human warehouses.

They should not exist primarily to generate profit.

They should be safe, controlled environments where punishment, rehabilitation, education, treatment, and preparation for release are taken seriously.

Until the public begins asking where the money goes, why rehabilitation is failing, why drugs remain widely available, and why so many people return to prison, nothing will change.

People need to wake up and look at what is happening behind prison walls.

The government and the prison system are not only letting prisoners down.

They are letting victims down.

They are letting the public down.

They are letting you down.

What's behind having to release some prisoners early?

 The government has changed its plan to release thousands of offenders in England and Wales well before the end of their sentences in an attempt to make space in prisons.

People sentenced for rape, serious child sex and grooming offences will now not be eligible for early release from October.

But some prisoners who are not excluded could be freed after serving a third of their total custodial sentence rather than after 40% or 50% of their term.

This is not the first time a government - Conservative or Labour - has had to release prisoners early to make space in England and Wales' overcrowded prisons.

BBC Verify has looked at the reasons why ministers feel the need to resort to these measures.

More prisoners than prison space

The prison population in England and Wales on 3 August was 86,495, external, which was 97% of useable capacity.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has warned the prison population will overtake capacity as soon as this November.

In the long-term the MoJ has projected that the capacity of all prisons will rise to around 99,000 by 2032 as a result of more prisons being built by this government.

But it also projected that the prisoner population would rise to about 104,000 by 2032 if the Sentencing Act 2026 - which provides for earlier release - did not come into force.

That is why new Justice Secretary Alex Norris says there is a "prison capacity crisis" which means the government has to implement the latest early release scheme.

Norris has said that 5,000 prisoners are now due to be released from October - down from 6,000 due to the new exclusions.

The MoJ has projected that the Sentencing Act will mean the prisoner population remains below the capacity of the prison system, rising only to around 96,000 by 2032.

More people are being sent to prison for longer

The England and Wales prison population has risen significantly in recent decades with a significant uptick starting in the 1990s before reaching a record high in 2024.

The Institute for Government (IFG) think tank says this is partly the result of longer sentences.

In 2023, the average prison sentence at Crown Courts in England and Wales - which deal with more serious offences - was more than 25% longer than those handed down in 2012.

For some crimes, the increase was greater. Sentences for robbery in 2023 were 13 months longer on average than in 2012 - an increase of 36%.

Longer sentences mean more people being held in prison at any one time.

Former Conservative Justice Secretary David Gauke, who led an independent sentencing review for Sir Keir Starmer's government, argues this is the result of a "bidding war" by political parties since the 1990s over who can imprison people for longer.

Gauke also points out that the prison population has been rising at a time when overall crime in England and Wales has been falling, according to the official Crime Survey.

So despite the fall in crime more people are being sent to prison - and for longer.

Another reason for upward pressure on the prison population is that more people than before are being returned to prison for breaching the conditions of their release.

There were 51,419 licence recalls in England and Wales in the year ending March 2026, up from 40,259 in the previous year - a 28% increase.

Cassia Rowland from the IFG said most recalls are for breaches of licence conditions, such as missed appointments, rather than offenders committing further offences or posing a serious risk to the public.

"The probation service is overwhelmed, with high caseloads and lots of vacancies putting often inexperienced staff under huge pressure," she said.

Slow pace of prison building

Successive governments have pledged to increase the number of prison places - but delivery has often fallen short of those promises.

Between 2010 and 2024, when the Conservatives were in power, around 13,000 new prison places were created.

But around 12,500 places - notably those built during the Victorian era - were closed after falling into disrepair.

That means an estimated net total of only around 500 new prison places were added over 14 years.

In a 2024 report, the National Audit Office (NAO) cited the MOJ's "unrealistic timelines", and government bodies not working together to prioritise delivery, as reasons for the slow pace of prison building.

Although three new prisons have opened in the past four years - adding approximately 5,000 more places - further expansion to existing prisons has been delayed by a major supplier going into administration, according to the Prison Reform Trust.

Pia Sinha of the Prison Reform Trust told BBC Verify: "Successive governments have found it difficult to increase prison capacity because new prisons take years to plan and build, often facing planning hurdles and local opposition."

The Labour government has pledged to build 14,000 new prison places by 2031. The MoJ told BBC Verify that it had delivered about 3,200 places as of July.

However, it has not said how many prison cells have been taken out of use so we cannot say whether there has been a net gain or loss of spaces.

Analysts argue that without a major change in thinking about the appropriateness of prison as punishment, or a significant long-term increase in prison building, the system in England and Wales will remain close to capacity.

And that means governments will continue to be under pressure to implement early release schemes to avert a capacity crisis.

 

‘We fought for a tougher sentence’: victims’ families’ fury over early release scheme

Partner of woman killed by dangerous driver among those who say they are devastated at killers leaving jail early

When Calvin Buckley, whose pregnant partner was killed by a dangerous driver in 2023, secured a tougher sentence for the man who took her life, he felt some justice had been served. Now, under plans to release prisoners early to ease overcrowding, Adil Iqbal, who filmed himself speeding at 123mph before he crashed into 38-year-old Frankie Jules-Hough, may serve less time in prison than he would have under his original sentence.

“He could actually serve less time than he originally was going to before we appealed,” Buckley said. “We’ve fought for a tougher sentence. What is the point of having an actual sentence if the government can just reduce that?”

Victims and bereaved family members who fear perpetrators could be released early under government plans to free up prison space say they are deeply concerned at the prospect of dangerous offenders walking the streets.

Gemma Chappell, the great-aunt of Maya Chappell, who was shaken to death aged two by her mother’s boyfriend in 2022, said the early release scheme was further traumatising bereaved families.

Maya’s mother, Dana Carr, was sentenced to nine years in prison after being found guilty of child cruelty by neglect and allowing her child’s death, but Chappell has been told she is set to be released early under the scheme.

“I think it’s terrible. I think victims are not being heard. We should be allowed to grieve, we should be allowed to have our trauma,” she said.

Chappell said it was “ridiculous” that Carr had made no admission of guilt and applied to have her sentence reduced, which was denied, but was now set to be released early anyway due to overcrowding.

She said she welcomed Andy Burnham’s intervention to exempt rapists, serious child sexual abuse offenders and those convicted of grooming from the early release plans but said it didn’t go far enough.

“There’s still victims and families out there who remain deeply concerned about these dangerous offenders getting out early, and we’re one of them. Justice should always be about public safety and the victim’s voice first,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

A former prison officer, Chappell said she wanted the government to invest more money in prison buildings instead. “Letting serious offenders out on to the street is not the answer,” she said. “We need some clarity on what’s going to happen if these offenders do get out because this affects our lifetime, not just the next couple of months.”

Buckley said he was devastated to find driving offenders would not be exempted from the plans. “To kill somebody and to have your [prison] sentence reduced is just not right. Our justice has been taken away,” he told BBC Breakfast.

“I understand there is a crisis, I agree that it needs to be addressed, but not at the expense of victims. For me it is another example of road victims not being treated the same as other offences.”

Iqbal was originally sentenced to 12 years for killing Jules-Hough and her unborn child, Neeve. This was increased to 15 years by the court of appeal under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.

Buckley said he was told Iqbal would serve a minimum of two-thirds of his original 12-year sentence – eight years – in prison. But under the new plans he could be eligible for release after half of his 15-year sentence, or seven and a half years.

The government has also been criticised for its decision not to exempt domestic abuse perpetrators from the early release scheme.

Alice Russell-Harris, the public affairs lead at Refuge, said the organisation was “deeply alarmed” and that the move would “put many domestic abuse survivors at risk”.

She said releasing domestic abusers early would “heighten survivors’ fears for their safety” and the charity was aware that perpetrators “frequently breach conditions to continue their campaign of abuse”.

The family of PC Andrew Harper, who was killed while responding to a report of a burglary in 2019, said they were devastated to learn two of the men jailed for his death would still be eligible for release.

Harper was killed after being dragged behind a car for a mile. Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, who were passengers in the car and sentenced to 13 years for manslaughter, could apply for early release after serving half of their sentences.

“Andrew deserves better than this and so do we,” his mother, Debbie Adlam said. “It feels like we’re letting Andrew down again. We’ve been through the justice system, we thought we’d done as best as we could. Apparently, the situation is, if nothing was done, then the prison system would fall completely. But we’re paying the price for it.”

Female prison officer who wrote love poems to prisoner is jailed

 A 44-year-old woman has been imprisoned after a court heard that she wrote love poems to a prisoner at HMP Channings Wood, where she worked.

The woman, a mother of three, pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office and was given a six-month sentence.

The court had heard she had developed a secret relationship with the man, who is serving an indefinite sentence for a sexual offence, while she was supervising him. Whilst the Judge accepted there had been no physical contact between them, she had written him to him on numerous occasions, gave him Valentine’s cards, and written him love poetry with sexual references.

The prison suspected that there was an improper link between them, and so he was transferred to another prison in January 2023. However the woman continued to keep in contact with him, including by using unregistered mobile phones and by listing a false name on the prison contact list, whilst claiming to be a relative of his. The prison then recorded conversations referring to their professed love for each other.

A search of her house by police found her hidden mobile phones, and she was arrested and charged. The judge told her that, despite there being no physical relationship, their affair was highly sexual and that, despite learning she is now remarried, six months’ incarceration was appropriate.

Fifth Five Wells woman officer sentenced over fling with an inmate

 A female former prison officer has been sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, having admitted to an affair with a prisoner at HMP Five Wells where she was working. 

The woman was 22 when she began working in the prison, and had been in the job for just three months when the relationship began.

Part of her job was to carry out welfare checks on the man, and in 2023 a mobile phone was found in his cell with over 660 messages between them, many very intimate. There was also evidence of 20 phone calls they shared, one of which lasted for over an hour.

The woman admitted sending him explicit photos and kissing him within the jail. She was dismissed in May 2023. In court, she pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office. 

The judge at Northampton Crown Court said that he took into account evidence that she had ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), but that a custodial sentence was appropriate. He said he was suspending it partly due to her illness and partly because she had waited three years for the sentence to be passed and had committed no other offences. She is also required to undertake 50 hours of unpaid work and has been referred for mental health support.

She is the fifth woman officer from Five Wells to have been convicted over illicit relationships with prisoners within less than two years. Three of the earlier cases had seen the women imprisoned, and another had a suspended punishment. In a headline reporting the latest conviction, the Northamptonshire Telegraph dubbed the prison ‘HMP Five Girls’. The 1,700-capacity men’s prison near Wellingborough opened in 2022 and is managed by G4S.

Female officer at HMP Belmarsh accused of inappropriate relationship with prisoner

 A 30-year-old woman appeared in court last week charged with having an “inappropriate relationship” with a male prisoner while working as an officer at high-security Belmarsh prison.

The woman appeared at Bromley Magistrates’ Court on 11 May, charged with misconduct in a public office between August 1 and September 5 last year. She spoke only to confirm her name, age and address. No details of the alleged relationship were heard in court, but the name of the prisoner involved was reported in media coverage of the case.

She was not asked to enter pleas and she was released on conditional bail.

The woman was reported to have held a senior role at Belmarsh, responsible for helping prisoners to find jobs after release. She was also reported to have been the director of two companies, one now dissolved.

Officer among 21 people charged with smuggling cannabis and phones into HMP Gartree

 A prison officer is among 21 people charged in connection with the alleged smuggling of cannabis and mobile phones into HMP Gartree in Leicestershire. The charges follow an investigation by the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU) Regional Prison Intelligence Unit. The offences are alleged to have occurred between 1 June 2022 and 6 October 2022.

Besides the 30-year-old officer, those charged include prisoners and their alleged associates outside. The officer has been charged with misconduct in a public office as well as smuggling narcotics into a jail, while each of the other 20 faces counts of conspiracy to supply a class B drug and conspiracy to convey a list B prohibited article into prison.

All suspects appeared on 29 June at Leicester Magistrates’ Court, where they did not enter pleas. They face a further hearing at Leicester Crown Courton 29 July.

Sixth officer at Five Wells charged over relationship with prisoner

 A sixth female officer at HMP Five Wells has been charged with criminal offences over claims she had an inappropriate relationship with a prisoner.

The 23-year-old woman has been charged with two counts of misconduct in public office and two counts of taking or sending a photograph or sound recording inside a prison without permission. The offences are said to have taken place between May and November 2024.

The woman is scheduled to appear at Northampton Magistrates’ Court on June 25.

Since G4S-run Five Wells opened in 2022, five other female staff have been convicted over illicit relationships with prisoners – leading a local newspaper to dub the jail ‘HMP Five Girls’. One was jailed for three years, two received 12-month sentences, and two got suspended sentences. The category C men’s prison is in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, and holds xxx men.

Prison officers deal drugs and ask inmates for sex, BBC told

 Next to a vandalised wire fence opposite HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, 28-year-old Beatrice Auty brushes away tears. The memories of her time inside the jail are too much to bear.

She served more than a year here for money laundering, and claims she was sexually harassed by a male prison officer.

“He made me feel very uncomfortable,” Auty says. “He commented on my appearance - a lot. He suggested he wanted to come to my cell - I feel if I had been up for it, he would have wanted sexual favours.”

Auty says she reported what happened, and told us she’s spoken to other women who have had similar experiences with the same guard, who made “comments about their breasts” and “how he would want [oral sex] from them”.

With prisons across the country running out of cells and the government releasing offenders early to ease pressure, the BBC has been reporting on the issues facing a system on the brink of collapse.

There are 23,613 prison officers in England and Wales, looking after a prison population of 85,867 inmates.

A record 165 prison staff were sacked for misconduct in the year to June 2024, according to His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). That’s an increase of 34% on the previous year.

Some of the reasons for these dismissals include sex acts and other inappropriate behaviour with inmates, as well as selling drugs and phones - a lucrative trade inside prisons.

In 2023, Auty was convicted of smuggling millions of pounds of criminal cash from London to Dubai, and sentenced to 42 months in prison.

She served 14 months in HMP Bronzefield - the largest prison in Europe for female offenders - before being released on licence, meaning even though she’s been freed she must stick to a set of rules for the remainder of her sentence.

With her hands thrust firmly in her pockets, Auty describes how it was “not uncommon at all” to see prison staff in Bronzefield dealing.

“The drugs would often be transported on the food trollies and then distributed at the other end on the house blocks,” Auty says.

“On one hand you have a prison service that’s meant to be rule-abiding and strict and uphold British values, and in reality you have corrupt officers.”

In response to Auty’s claims, Sodexo, the private company that runs the prison, told the BBC it cannot comment on individual cases, but “where complaints are received about any employee, we undertake all appropriate investigations and take necessary actions as needed”.

Lee Davis was a prison officer from 2006 until 2010, during which time he regularly supplied cannabis, steroids and phones to inmates, getting paid £400-500 for every package he delivered.

After agreeing to take the first package, he describes a “snowball effect”.

“It then became two, and three," he says, "then after package four it was purely about the money.”

Davis was eventually caught and served two years in prison. He’s since turned his life around and works as a bus driver in Lancaster now, but says much more could be done to stop other prison staff dealing inside.

“They’ve got to up the ante by searching officers going in,” Davis says. “I was searched twice in three years and that isn’t good - we need to stop it at the gates.”

A prison officer who doesn't want to be identified who works in a different, government-run English jail, told us it's unsurprising to hear about staff corruption.

She says everyone working in prisons knows drugs are being supplied by officers.

“They know how to fiddle the system - they know better than anyone how to get drugs and phones in - because they know the checks they’ve got to go through," the woman says.

“Some [prison officers] are so young and inexperienced they easily get caught up in organised crime, with gangs inside sometimes putting pressure on them to supply all sorts.

“There’s a power dynamic, and prison officers can feel like they can do what they want - like asking for sex. They can make life difficult for those inside, and they know that.”

There have been several high profile cases this year which convey the problem of prison officer corruption.

Last month, former prison officer Richard Goss was jailed for four years after admitting to smuggling drugs, needles, and mobile phones into HMP Buckley Hall in Rochdale.

Another former officer, Linda De Sousa Abreu, was filmed having sex with an inmate in HMP Wandsworth in London. In July she was convicted of misconduct in a public office after the video went viral on social media.

Corruption inside prisons is now "a greater problem than it has ever been," according to John Podmore, a former governor of several large prisons, including HMP Belmarsh and HMP Brixton, both in London. He oversaw the prison service’s Corruption Prevention Unit and the London Prison’s Anti-corruption Team.

“There is a perfect storm of young inexperienced staff with poor vetting and inadequate training being thrown into a dystopian environment," Mr Podmore says, "where violence and organised crime dominate a failing prison system.”

He estimates the value of drugs traded across the prison estate each year is in excess of £1bn.

No specific qualifications are needed to become a prison officer in England and Wales.

On its website, HMPPS states new recruits will be given a 10-day induction, which includes finding out about prison life and being shown basic security processes.

This is followed by a seven-week training programme, during which trainees are taught how to look after people in custody and de-escalate challenging situations.

Mr Podmore describes this training as “totally inadequate”, and “the worst and shortest of any jurisdiction I have observed over five continents”.

“The vast majority of officers are corrupted as a result of conditioning, manipulation, coercion and blackmail, while being badly trained, poorly led and inadequately supervised,” he adds.

Steven Gillan from the Prison Officer Association told the BBC that, while he defends the vast majority of "hard working and professional" prison officers, he is "not going to sugar coat the issue of corruption” - one he describes as "very real".

“Prisons are complex places and there can be no place or excuse for corrupt staff,” he says.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) says it is “catching more of the small minority who break the rules. This includes by bolstering our Counter Corruption Unit and strengthening our vetting processes.

“Where officers do fall below our high standards, we will always take robust action.”