Release of thousands of convicts to ease prison crisis

Thousands of convicts freed to ease prison crisis - Independent

Extract:

"Thousands of non-violent inmates will be released early and an extra 1,500 jail spaces will be built in an emergency package of measures to tackle the overcrowding crisis.

Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the Justice Secretary, has been forced to take the drastic action after the prison population rose to a record 81,016 in England and Wales, with further sharp increases predicted over the summer.

He has won reluctant approval for the release plans from Tony Blair and secured more than £200m from Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, to pay for the extra places. Prison reform groups said the moves would only temporarily ease the strain on overcrowded jails, while police protested that the releases would put too much pressure on them.

Lord Falconer told peers he had decided to authorise the release on licence up to 18 days early of prisoners serving sentences of between four weeks and four years. The move is expected to result in between 1,500 and 1,800 inmates being let out early in the first weeks after the scheme comes into effect on 29 June.

Its eventual effect will be to reduce the numbers behind bars by about 1,200, buying the Government breathing space as it races to build extra prisons. Over the course of a year, 25,500 offenders could be affected by the scheme."


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Vincent and Michael Hickey must pay the "living expenses" they incurred in prison from their compensation, the court of appeal ruled yesterday.

Wrongly jailed cousins must pay 'expenses'

Extract:

"Two men who spent more than 12 years in jail for a murder they did not commit must pay the "living expenses" they incurred in prison from their compensation, the court of appeal ruled yesterday.

By a four-one majority, five law lords upheld the deduction from the Home Office compensation awarded to cousins Vincent and Michael Hickey for their wrongful conviction in 1979 for the murder of newspaper boy Carl Bridgewater.

In the first case of its kind to go to court, the pair argued that it was wrong in principle to charge what was, in effect, board and lodging during their unjustified incarceration. But the ruling against them by the House of Lords enshrines in law the practice by Home Office-appointed independent assessors of deducting living expenses from the part of the award covering lost earnings. The Hickeys' solicitor, Susie Labinjoh of Hodge, Jones & Allen, said they were "devastated". "To deduct saved living expenses from their compensation offends against justice. We had all hoped their lordships would right this wrong.""

This seems very unjust to me...)o: