Foreign criminals will serve shorter sentences than Britons under emergency plan
Foreign prisoners will serve shorter sentences than Britons under an emergency government measure to cut prison overcrowding.
Under the scheme, overseas citizens can be freed from UK jails and deported to their homelands up to 18 months earlier than a British prisoner would be released if serving the same sentence.
The plan has been criticised by a leading House of Lords committee and one of Britain’s most senior former judges.
It means that if a British man and a Polish man run a drugs gang together, and both get six-year sentences, the Briton would serve three years in jail while the Pole could serve only one-and-a-half years before being sent home. He would not have to serve time in Poland, but would be barred from returning to the UK.
The extension to the time limit on the Early Removal Scheme was one of a series of steps announced by Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, to tackle the shortage of prison places.
The disparity has come to light after the rule change was investigated by the Lords secondary legislation scrutiny committee, according to Inside Time. The committee concluded that “the policy may not have been fully thought through by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)”.
Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, a former Lord Chief Justice and a member of the committee, said: “The policy could be seen as reducing the punishment of overseas criminals in order to ensure that UK citizens can continue to be sent to prison.
“In addition, the policy risks reducing the deterrents for overseas citizens to commit crime, potentially undermining confidence in the criminal justice system.”
The peers also criticised the Government for failing to produce any estimate of how many foreign national prisoners would be sent home earlier following the rule change, or how many prison places would be freed up.
Previously, the Early Removal Scheme allowed releases up to 12 months before the release date. It applies to foreign nationals serving fixed-term sentences of any length, including for violent or sexual offences, but excluding terrorism.
The MoJ has calculated that extending the limit to 18 months will bring around 300 additional prisoners into scope of the scheme at any time.
There are 10,500 foreign nationals in English and Welsh prisons. Explaining the deportation scheme, Mr Chalk has said: “It’s right that foreign criminals are punished, but it cannot be right that some are sat in prison costing taxpayers £47,000 a year when they could be deported.
“Instead of letting foreign nationals take up space in our prisons at vast expense to the law-abiding public, we will take action to get them out of the country and stop them from ever returning.”
Other measures to tackle the prison capacity crisis include an 18-day early release scheme, a legal presumption that sentences of less than 12 months will be served in the community instead of in prison, and plans to rent prison cells abroad. Judges have also been asked to bail newly convicted criminals awaiting sentence.
The MoJ is also paying Albania £8 million to take back up to 200 of their most dangerous prisoners, including 17 lifers who will complete their sentences in their home country jails.
Among those identified for return is Koci Selamaj, 36, the murderer of Sabina Nessa, a 28-year-old schoolteacher. He was jailed for a minimum of 36 years for beating and strangling her to death in a park in south-east London.
He has so far served only two years, which would mean the UK paying Albania £400,000 to imprison him for the remaining 34 years of his sentence. However, it would cost £1.9 million if he remained in a UK jail.
The MoJ almost ran out of prison cells this autumn when the number of spare places in the male jail estate fell to within 300 of its capacity.
The number of prisoners in England and Wales has risen by 6,000 since the start of 2023 to stand above 88,000 – just 1,000 short of the maximum permitted level.
The MoJ told the Lords committee: “The Government’s clear assessment is that urgent action is needed to tackle the prison capacity challenge.”
