Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve has reacted to the news that prisoners are being advised to apply for early release on a tag.
Jack Straw recently announced that he is scrapping the End of Custody Licence scheme. But prisoners who are no longer eligible for early release under that scheme are being advised to apply instead for a different scheme which offers up to four and a half months off their sentence.
Prison Governors have been issued an instruction that not only advises them of the cancellation of ECL, but advises prisoners to now apply for early release on a tag – "Home Detention Curfew – instead.
The HDC scheme gives offenders up to 135 days early release, subject to an electronically monitored curfew.
In a written statement slipped out ahead of Jack Straw’s statement to Parliament, the Justice Secretary revealed that the controversial ‘Bail Accommodation Support Service’, which provides accommodation for prisoners released early on Home Detention, would be extended for a further three years.
Grieve said the letter to prisoners "shows that Jack Straw's announcement was all about politics, at the expense of the public interest".
"Prisoners will still be released early – just under a different procedure. This is a cynical and dishonest ploy from a desperate government."