Send him down ma Lord

To control the narrative, you have to control the counter narrative.

Both sides of the carefully constructed yet, in my opinion, entirely imaginary left wing / right wing divide have railed against the government's recent involvement in the legal system.

On the right wing you hear constantly about the two tier system while on the left wing we see evidence of a judge removing the right to jury equity. Both sides have highlighted instances where people have been charged and tried under one section of the Criminal Justice Act then sentenced  under another.

Both sides also complain bitterly about the eradication of policing by consent that is still, technically at least, a linchpin of the UK's legal system.

Meanwhile the government is moving forward with plans to restrict the use of jury trials in the UK. As clear an indication as you could ask for that our democracy is under attack from the establishment.

This brings me to the awful case of PC Harper who was tragically killed after becoming entangled with a getaway car being driven by Henry Long. Long was sentenced to 16 years in prison and his passengers, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers to 13 years. All three were convicted of manslaughter.

Cole and Bowers recently became eligible for early release as part of the government's efforts to reduce overcrowding in the prison estate.

As of today, over one million people have signed a petition demanding that the two be excluded from the early release scheme. 

Regardless of whether you believe the two received an appropriate sentence in the first place, nor whether you think that they should be eligible for early release, the facts are that around 5000 prisoners are eligible for release after the government reacted to public concerns that an initial 6000 prisoners would be released early.

Once it became clear that there was growing public outrage about the planned early release of PC Harper's killers, the government responded by announcing before the weekend that they could not treat individual cases differently and were powerless to prevent their release. By Monday, faced with growing media focus on the case over the weekend, a spokesman for the PM announced that ‘ministers had been instructed to do all they could to keep the pair in prison’.

Clearly it would be unfair and quite likely unlawful to exempt the two specifically and so the government is looking at the possibility of excluding prisoners sentenced for manslaughter from early release schemes.

Again, whether you agree or disagree that these offenders should ever be eligible for early release schemes is not the point I am highlighting. The issue is that the public are actively demanding that the government take a personal interest in individual cases.

How can the same public then demand that the government does not get involved in individual sentencing and the policing of specific groups?

The formal separation of the government and legislature dates back to the Act of Settlement in 1701 although institutional separation only occurred in October 2009 with the adoption of the constitutional reform act of 2005.

At the same time, the Law Lords were removed from the House of Lords in an effort to prevent the exact type of government interference this petition calls for.

The blame for this farce does not lay solely at the feet of the current government. Between 2010 and 2024 a total of twenty three (23) prisons were closed in England and Wales. In the same period only five (5) new prisons were built. Successive governments have pointed to the opening of new wings to existing prisons but failed to mention that this was to replace existing wings to often Victorian era jails.

Many of our existing prisons are not fit for purpose. You don't rehabilitate people by cramming them into Victorian jails that have failed repeated fire inspections.

The most common argument against building modern, humane prisons is the one of ‘let them rot’, however statistics constantly show that the European countries with the lowest rates of reoffending within 2 years are Norway (20%) and Sweden and Denmark (27%) 

By comparison the same figure in England and Wales is 42% and for second offenders this rises to 72% for certain crimes!

All of the top performers in terms of rehabilitation build jails where prisoners are housed humanely and safely, get regular exercise and have progressive rehabilitation programmes.

None of this is possible in the UK’s overcrowded prison estate with many prisoners complaining of regular lockdowns, little if any access to exercise and an absence of meaningful rehabilitation programmes.

The situation for youth offenders is worse with over 60% of children sent to a young offenders institution going on to be sentenced to prison as an adult.

Clearly the UK’s prison system is broken and has been for some time. Ministry of justice figures show that under Richie Sunak, ten thousand (10 '000) prisoners were released early.

It's not difficult to see why!

For decades the total number of places in the UK’s prison estate has remained largely unchanged. Even with the current planned release of 5000 offenders, prison governors are warning that another release will be needed by November this year! The Prison Governors Association has argued against excluding perpetrators of manslaughter from the early release scheme for this very reason! This in spite of official figures that repeatedly point to a decrease in serious crime. The problem we are told is more offenders being recalled to custody and a dramatic increase in the length of sentences.

When you add to the mix the current government’s predilection for charging women over the age of 50 under terrorism legislation for brandishing pieces of cardboard, isn't it difficult not to reach the conclusion that the current UK government, like many previous governments, cares more about being seen to be tough on crime than they do  about the safety of the public?

If they did they would surely be planning multiple, new build modern prisons with the appropriate facilities to successfully rehabilitate offenders! Especially when you consider the fact that the stated purpose of prisons in the UK is to protect the public by safely holding prisoners so that they can be rehabilitated and prevented from becoming repeat offenders.

It is appalling that Andy Burnham’s government is playing a dangerous game of placating those who shout loudest instead of effectively dealing with an issue that affects everyone in the UK. The reason, I suspect, is because they would rather deal with moral outrage which, by definition, is based on emotion, and therefore easier to deal with than to face fact based analysis where they would be forced to admit take real action, or admit that they don't give a damn about the safety of the UK public.

Over one hundred (100) data centres are confirmed for the UK in the next 5 years although according to some sources the figure is closer to over five hundred (500).

Over the same period there are only three new prisons planned and of the three, only one, HMP Welland Oaks in Leicestershire has begun. The other two don't even have full planning permission!

What would you rather see? More prisons so that our society as a whole can be made safer, or more data centers so that the agenda of US ‘tech bros’ can be advanced while at the same time depleting millions of litres of drinking water and generating massive energy consumption?

Some things don't add up but then again, to control the narrative you have to control the counter narrative.