Coronavirus: Ministers urged to release hundreds of prisoners on short sentences to combat outbreak

Ministers are being urged to release hundreds of inmates on short sentences in an effort to slim the prison population and aid the government’s efforts to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

It comes after a prisoner tested positive for covid-19 at HMP Manchester earlier this week, and campaigners warned the virus could “spread like wildfire” if it were to infiltrate Britain’s prisons.

The Reform think-tank estimated there are 2,305 “low risk” offenders currently serving sentences for crimes such as shop-lifting and should be released into the community.

The organisation claims that by releasing a large proportion of these inmates, the strain will be eased on both overcrowding in British prisons and on the prison workforce during the outbreak of the virus.

Reform adds that in the short-term aid the fight against coronavirus and significantly reduce the cost of holding offenders in prisons – with a price tag of £3,601 a month.

Rather, the organisation said the cost of monitoring an offender with ‘Home Detention Curfew tag is around £166 a month, while a full community sentence, including unpaid work and probation meetings, would cost around £368 a month.

In a briefing paper, the organisation added the virus presents “unprecedented problems” for prisons, claiming: “A combination of overcrowded and insanitary conditions and poor-quality healthcare in prisons means covid-19 poses an increased risk to the system”.

“The government should consider using emergency legislation to transfer all prisoners currently serving a sentence of less than six months into the HDC population, and to ban sentences from passing a sentence of six months or less.”

Certain offence groups, such as violent, weapons, or sexual offences, should be excluded from the proposed change in rules, the group said.

Aidan Shilson-Thomas, the think-tank’s criminal justice lead, added: “Delivering these vital measures would lead to a significant rebalancing of the justice system towards probation services. They will reduce the prison population, divert offenders to more effective punishments and reduce reoffending.

“Tinkering at the edges of the prison population is not enough. The government cannot keep pushing the envelope with ever more crowded prisons, especially with the threat of covid-19. We urge them to adopt these recommendations.”

Asked about the prospect of early release, however, a No 10 source said: “The legislation today set out the steps we think would be required, I don’t think that was one of them".