Releasing prisoners to combat COVID-19

Work with Offenders looks at the detail of the Ministry of Justice's plans

The main subject of conversation in the criminal justice community over the last couple of weeks has been if and when the Government would decide to release prisoners early in order to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

There are a large number of reasons why such a move is in everyone’s interests:

• Many prisoners (a minimum of 15,000) are sharing cells intended for one person, making social isolation impossible.
• Prisons contain a large number of individuals who are particularly at risk from coronavirus, either because of their age or underlying health conditions.
• In many prisons, it is difficult for prisoners to access soap or hand gel to wash their hands regularly and try to prevent the spread of the virus.
• The (obviously) closed nature of prisons means that once one individual is infected, the conditions are right for rapid transmission to a large proportion of the population.
• Both prison staff – and prisoners at the start or end of their sentence – are regularly travelling between the community and custody, meaning that the virus can easily cross prison walls.

On Tuesday the MoJ announced that pregnant prisoners who do not pose a high risk of harm to the public would be temporarily released from prison to protect them and their unborn children from coronavirus. The same criteria applied to women prisoners in Mother and Baby Units who would also be released along with their children. These prisoners did not have their prison sentences shortened but were released on temporary licence.

For the rest of the week, an announcement on male prisoners appeared to be imminent. Penal reform groups who initially thought they had had constructive discussions with the MoJ, began to despair at the lack of action. If there is one thing we have learned as a country from the pandemic, it is that we must respond to situations rapidly. As a wise man once said (Thomas Cromwell in the final part of Hilary Mantel’s trilogy), “It’s important to think deeply about decisions, but just as important to think fast.”

On Saturday the Ministry finally announced that prisoners who are within two months of their release date and are also assessed as low risk would be temporary released from jail “as part of the national plan to protect the NHS and save lives”.

The MoJ said that they were taking this action to avoid thousands of prisoners becoming infected and overwhelming local NHS services. Prisoners who pass the “stringent” criteria for release will be subject to strict conditions and will be electronically monitored, including with GPS tags, to enforce the requirement to stay at home. The MoJ emphasised that prisoners released in this way can be immediately recalled for either committing a further offence or breaching the conditions of their release.

The MoJ also made it clear that no prisoner would be released if they had symptoms of the virus or did not have an address to go to. The hope is that this will make it easier to put as many prisoners as possible into single cell accommodation and try to prevent the spread of the virus throughout an institution.

In taking this action, the Government has followed the lead of a number of other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the United States.

At the time of this announcement, the MoJ said that 88 prisoners and 15 staff had tested positive for COVID-19 and it emerged later that day that two members of prison staff working at HMP Pentonville had tragically lost their lives from the virus.

It is not completely clear when the releases will start; the MoJ says only that releases will be phased and will start this week. The first thing that needs to be done is for the government to pass the appropriate legislation by means of “Statutory Instruments” to make the releases legal.

It’s likely that one of the main reasons for the MoJ’s delay is that there are detailed logistics involved in ensuring that released prisoners receive a thorough risk assessment and have appropriate accommodation to be released to as well as ensuring that the probation service has sufficient staff at work to supervise these individuals in the community.

Interestingly, the Justice Secretary Robert Buckland is due to appear in front of the Justice Committee on Tuesday to discuss COVID-19 and the justice system. Somewhat oddly, the meeting will not only be held online (obviously appropriate in terms of social distancing requirements) but also in private with only a “summary note” published shortly afterwards.

We shall have to wait and see whether more detail emerges tomorrow.