Prisoners Freed Early Could Be Housed in Hotels, Says Justice Secretary

Prisoners freed early to ease jail overcrowding could be housed in hotels, the justice minister has said.
Shabana Mahmood told the House of Commons on Tuesday that the emergency measures would only be required if there were not enough provision in the existing community accommodation and prisoners faced homelessness.
On Tuesday, around 1,700 inmates were released early, which is on top of the 1,000 prisoners normally released every week.
The justice secretary said: “As is the case any time a prisoner is released, probation staff are working hard to prepare release plans, including permanent and temporary accommodation. If an offender is at risk of homelessness on release, they will be housed in community accommodation.
“We expect to provide housing for the majority of offenders using existing provision, but, should there not be enough, I have authorised probation directors to make use of alternative arrangements, including budget hotels, as a temporary measure for the cases that we will see in the next few weeks.”
Mahmood confirmed that should that change, she would be transparent with the House, local authorities, and the public about where, how many, and when prisoners will be housed in hotels.
A total of around 5,500 inmates are due to be released early under the scheme, with hundreds more to be freed early in October in the second stage.
Taylor’s report found that many prisons lacked meaningful activities for inmates to prepare them for life and work and that out of the 32 closed prison reports included in the annual analysis, 30 were rated poor or insufficiently good in terms of purposeful activity.
The report also predicted that the prison population will grow by as much as 27,000 by 2028, and said that with the large increase, “it is unlikely to be possible to build enough new accommodation.”
The government has said current overcrowding was caused by the previous administration’s failure to build more prisons.
Mahmood has said the early release measures are temporary, “giving us time to set about long-term change in the prison system—building the prisons we need and driving down reoffending.”