Coronavirus: Calls for some prisoners to be released early to deal with outbreak
It comes after a third prisoner becomes the latest inmate to die after testing positive for COVID-19 in Cambridgeshire.
Thursday 2 April 2020 09:14, UK
Some prisoners should be released early to help overcrowded prisons deal with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to the former chief inspector of prisons.
David Ramsbotham says he is "very worried" about the effect the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the country's prisons, adding that the outbreak could deplete staff numbers, making them unable to deal with the crisis.
His comments come as a 77-year-old man with underlying health conditions at Littlehey prison in Cambridgeshire became the third prisoner to die after testing positive for coronavirus.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph with a cross-party coalition of 50 other members of the House of Lords, police and crime commissioners, academics and charities, Lord Ramsbotham urged the government to suspend short sentences in prisons.
He said: "The remand prisoners in particular should be let out.
"They should also examine indeterminate sentence prisoners."
Lord Ramsbotham also said that the service has a lack of experienced officers on prison wings in the UK, and had lost the equivalent of 80,000 years of expertise due to staff cuts.
Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, has already allowed 69 pregnant women and women with babies to be released from prison early, but has stopped short of a full scale early release of short-term inmates.
Andrea Albutt, the president of the Prison Governors' Association, told the Telegraph: "Prisons are now at the point where a decision must be made and implemented immediately on early release."
In March, Steve Gillan, the general secretary of the Prison Officers Association told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme that he believed some prisoners could be released early, should the outbreak take hold in the UK's prisons.
A spokesperson from the Department of Justice said there are "no plans to end short-term prison sentences".
However, it is thought that alternative measures, such as taking prisoners to army barracks instead, are under consideration.