Andy Burnham’s plan to stop the early release of PC Andrew Harper’s killers and other serious offenders could increase the risk of some more dangerous prisoners being released by mistake, unions have warned.
In another blow to the proposals announced by the prime minister, probation staff have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike, warning of already unrealistic workloads.
While the vote by members of Napo was not directly connected to the early release plans, the probation officers’ union has previously criticised the proposals as rushed. The union said the 91% vote in favour of a strike would come as a blow to ministers.
Burnham said earlier he recognised “the depth of public concern” about the proposed early release of Harper’s killers and announced a change to the early release scheme. The scheme is designed to free up urgently needed spaces in overcrowded prisons across England and Wales.
After an uproar about the proposed release of Harper’s killers Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, Burnham said on Tuesday morning that he had instructed the justice secretary, Alex Norris, to find more prison spaces so the pair and other serious offenders would not be freed.
Writing on Facebook, Burnham said places could be provided by removing foreign offenders more quickly, finding a way to release lower-risk prisoners stuck in jail on indeterminate sentences, and “making greater use of the entire prison estate including using the female estate for male offenders”.
Downing Street had said on Monday that there was no feasible way of exempting just a handful of prisoners from the scheme to block the release of Cole and Bowers, who were sentenced to 13 years for Harper’s manslaughter. Under the scheme, they were due to be freed in January.
Jessie Cole (left) and Albert Bowers, two of three men sentenced over PC Andrew Harper’s death. Photograph: Thames Valley police/PA
Tom Wheatley, the president of the Prison Governors’ Association, said further changes to the scheme could lead to prisoners being wrongly released. “Mistakes are more likely due to having to recalculate sentences against a very tight deadline,” he said.
Wheatley said removing overseas prisoners was likely to be difficult as many would resist this and a number did not have proper documentation. He said victims would also want to be sure that anyone sent back to home countries would properly serve their sentence there.
Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, said placing men in women’s prisons would require investment and retraining. “Repurposing women’s prisons to accommodate male prisoners is not something that can simply be achieved by changing the sign above the door,” he said.
“There would inevitably be additional staffing, training, security and operational requirements. “The physical design and facilities of women’s prisons are not necessarily suitable for a male population, and those differences would need to be properly assessed before any decision was taken.
“You cannot create safe prison places simply by finding additional buildings. You need the staff, training, infrastructure and resources to operate them safely.”
The Ministry of Justice said it was disappointed by the Napo strike vote and it would continue to engage with the union. Officials in Norris’s department are understood to be working at full speed on preparing detailed and workable plans to free up spaces by September.
When the early release scheme was announced, there were exemptions for prisoners convicted of rape, serious child sexual abuse and grooming offences but not manslaughter, prompting pressure to block the release of Harper’s killers, including from police and his family.
Officials initially said it would be unrealistic to just block the release of Cole and Bowers and that exempting all manslaughter cases risked not creating enough prison spaces to ease the crisis. But in his Facebook post, and speaking to reporters on a later visit to Derbyshire, Burnham said he was aware of the strength of public feeling about the plans.
PC Andrew Harper was killed in Berkshire in 2019. Photograph: Thames Valley police/PA
“It’s my job to speak up for the public on this issue,” he said during the visit. “I take that duty very seriously indeed, and I’m confident that there’s more that can be done, and will be done to address public concern.”
He said on Facebook he understood “the depth of public concern about the potential early release of those involved with the killing of PC Andrew Harper – and I share it”.
He wrote: “I am increasingly confident that a more focused approach along these lines will allow us to reduce the number of people released early and, in the case of the most serious offenders like those convicted of the killing of PC Harper, prevent their early release altogether.
“In advance of the justice secretary’s proposals being presented to parliament, we will seek to engage other political parties in discussions with the aim of gaining the widest possible public and political consensus on the approach being taken.”
Last week, Napo warned that ministers seemingly did not “have a clue about how ill-equipped the probation service is to take on this additional work” connected to early release, such as informing victims that a perpetrator was being released.
Announcing the result of the strike ballot, Ben Cockburn, the Napo national chair, said the vote was “professionals warning they cannot protect the public properly when there are not enough people to do the work”.
A union statement said: “The result should come as a blow to government as it prepares to expand early release from prison and implement Sentencing Act changes, increasing the number of people managed in the community while probation is already struggling to cope.”
Harper, 28, was fatally injured when he got caught in a strap attached to the back of a car and was dragged down a country road as the killers fled the scene of a quad bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in 2019.
Cole and Bowers, two of three men sentenced over the police officer’s death, are due to be released halfway through their 13-year sentences, having been convicted of manslaughter in 2020. A petition demanding an intervention has nearly 900,000 signatures.
The early release changes were part of the Sentencing Act passed earlier this year that cut the minimum amount of time many offenders would have to spend in prison.
