21/09/2021
Police Oracle
Work with offenders on a continuing campaign from Nacro
Almost three years ago – in November 2018, Nacro, the social justice charity, launched a campaign highlighting the problems caused by Friday prison releases.
There are three main factors which contribute to additional problems with releasing people from prison on a Friday:
1. Increased number of releases
National statistics, as well data from Nacro services, show that more than a third of custody leavers are released on a Friday. This is for the simple fact that anyone whose last day of their prison sentence is on Friday, Saturday or Sunday (or Bank Holiday Monday) is released on a Friday — it is quite simply (and quite properly) illegal for prisons to hold people past their release date. This peak in releases on Fridays adds pressure to Offender Managers and Responsible Officers, local housing authorities, other accommodation providers, Jobcentre Plus offices and other community services.
2. Fridays are busy days in prisons
On Fridays, as on other days, prison staff need to prepare outgoing prisoners for court in the morning and, in addition, need to process the higher numbers of people being released. Due to performance indicators, prisons will prioritise preparing for court over those due for release. This can result in people being released later in the day, having limited time to present to services before the weekend. People being released may also have to travel significant distances to reach the area they are being resettled to, arriving late in the day, reducing the likelihood of securing all the support they need. This issue is particularly relevant to women and young people due to the configuration of the prison estate and the distance they may be from their home area.
3. Services in the community can be reduced on Fridays with no service over the weekend
In addition to the above, people leaving prison are left with a limited window of time in which to make vital arrangements before services close for the weekend. A number of appointments and practical issues often need to be sorted out or planned for immediately, such as those highlighted previously. Some of the most crucial resettlement agencies run reduced services on Fridays or close early and run little or no service over the weekend.
Campaign update
The campaign attracted lots of attention in the mainstream and specialist media and the Government responded by saying that they were taking action to make sure that people can access the help and support they need when leaving prison, but changing the day of release wasn’t the answer.
Nacro make the point that three years later the problems that many people encounter on leaving prison have not gone away and they continue to hear case after case of people being released on a Friday who are left without vital support over the weekend, leading to homelessness, lost contact with services, relapse, and reoffending.
It is clear that Nacro think that the current changes for criminal justice, particularly in probation and resettlement services, presents new opportunities for policy makers to re-consider the issue of Friday releases.
The charity points out that the reunification of the probation service brings new opportunities; the argument for the need to tackle homelessness on release from prison has been heard and the first stage of funding released; and the prison discharge grant has been increased for the first time in over 25 years.
Nacro argues that Friday prison releases are needlessly setting people up to fail; putting additional pressure on other services; and increasing the risk of reoffending. It recommends that ministers consider following the example of Scotland in coming up with a solution. In Scottish law, the Prisoners (Control of Release) (Scotland) Act 2015 states that prisoners due for release on a Friday can have their release brought forward by one or two days if it would be better for the prisoner’s re-integration into the community. This simple measure would give prison governors the power to give thousands of people released from prison every year a better chance of building a new life.