On Tuesday, The Telegraph reported that the number of spare prison places in male jails has fallen to just 100.
It is the closest the prison service has come to running out of space in male jails, although officials at the Ministry of Justice (“MoJ”) were hoping that they would not have to introduce further emergency measures.
“The MoJ has already activated Operation Early Dawn, under which defendants are kept in police cells until prison spaces become available. The problems have been worsened by a surge in arrests over the Bank Holiday weekend, including 330 at the Notting Hill Carnival in west London,” The Telegraph said.
Sources told The Telegraph that MoJ officials are confident they will be able to manage the situation without needing to implement further emergency measures, known as Operation Brinker.
Operation Brinker is a contingency plan that has never been used before. Under this plan, police forces would be required to hold suspects in their cells for a longer period than under the current Operation Early Dawn. This could potentially mean holding them overnight and even beyond 24 hours before they can be sent to court. It would involve operating a “one-in, one-out system,” which limits intake to the available space each day.
Further into The Telegraph’s article is the important part that has the most societal impact and possibly long-term harm: “Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, has introduced an early release scheme from 10 September that will see thousands freed 40 per cent of the way through their sentence, rather than halfway … It is expected to reduce the prison population by some 5,500.”
It is claimed that the early release programme will only apply to prisoners serving sentences for non-violent crimes. However, this refers to offenders with longer sentences. It will exclude sexual offenders and violent offenders with sentences of 4 years or more. So, will violent and sex offenders sentenced to less than four years be eligible?
Some of these prisoners are being released early to make room for people who posted or reposted memes or comments on social media, people who shouldn’t be sent to jail in the first place. Apart from perjury, bearing false witness under oath in a judicial proceeding, words and thoughts are not crimes. Crimes are an act. An act that causes damage to or loss of property, and harm to or loss of life.
However, the Labour government is using the law to persecute speech with which it doesn’t approve.
Take the case of Bernadette Spofforth (“Bernie”), a 55-year-old mother of three, who reposted that the suspect of the Southport murderous attack was a man called Ali Al-Shakati. A man who was on an MI6 watchlist and had arrived in the UK by boat last year. She prefixed this information with “if this is true” and deleted the tweet within hours, the minute she realised it was false information. Nonetheless, she was arrested “on suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred” and “false communication.”
Perhaps not coincidentally, Bernie has been outspoken about the UK government’s false narratives on covid and other topics, and is often described as an “anti-lockdown campaigner.”
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