Sally Jameson, who worked for five years at HMP & YOI Moorland said accidental releases were unacceptable, but accused the Conservatives of letting the system rot for years
The crisis in Britain’s prisons comes from a decade of Tory austerity leaving them at “breaking point”, a former prison officer turned MP has claimed.
Sally Jameson, who worked for five years at HMP & YOI Moorland agreed the recent accidental releases were unacceptable, but accused the Conservatives of letting the system rot for years.
Registered sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif wrongly walked free from HMP Wandsworth last week, while fraudster William Smith, known as Billy, was released from the same prison on Monday after a mix-up on court records.
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The Doncaster Central MP admitted it would take time for the system to be fixed, but vowed Labour would turn the prisons around.
She said: “Over a decade of Tory austerity saw our prisons pushed to breaking point. Violence, self-harm and drug abuse skyrocketed as the last government cut and cut away – a total of 30% of the Justice budget was lost between 2010 and 2015.
“The Tories increased sentence lengths but did not reckon with the consequences, promising 20,000 but adding just 500 places over 14 years. The number of frontline prison officers fell by nearly a third. I know the prison estate that this government inherited – I’ve worked on it – it is in crisis.”
Under the Tory Government, 860 prisoners were released in error, including several violent offenders. In the final two years of the Conservative administration ,the number of accidental releases rose from 81 (2022/23) to 115 (2023/24).
This included serial rapist Joseph McCann who carried out 11 attacks in a 15-day rampage just two months after he was wrongly released, and William Fernandez, who was release while serving time for sexual assault/indecent exposure. After he was let out of prison, he raped a 16-year-old.
Four consecutive Conservative manifestos promised more prison places – with a vow to add 20,000 extra spaces by the mid-2020s. This timeline was later delayed by half a decade. Ms Jameson admitted the mistaken releases under Labour were “unacceptable”, but that they inherited a system “struggling to cope”.
She said: “Accidental releases are symptomatic of a prison system pushed to breaking point by years of Tory austerity. Austerity which has devastated our public services and damaged our communities.
“We know it will take time for the prison system to recover, which is why this work began in earnest following the election last year. Our landmark sentencing reforms will ensure we never run out of prison places again.”