There has been significant concern raised by women’s organisations as to early release provisions.
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Dame Nicole Jacobs, said:
“I cannot stress the lack of consideration for victims’ safety and how many lives are being put in danger because of this proposed change.
You are not sent to prison for four years if you do not pose significant risk to your victim or the wider public. Perpetrators of domestic abuse know everything about their victim – where they live, where they work, where their children go to school – they are also extremely willing to breach orders intended to protect victims, time and time again. Re-releasing them back into the community after 28 days is simply unacceptable.
What makes this worse is that ministers cannot safely exempt all perpetrators of domestic abuse from this proposal, because they do not know how many domestic abusers are serving time in prison or are currently being monitored by probation.
Until government can confidently exempt all offenders with a known history of domestic abuse from this measure, it is critical for victims’ safety that this proposal is scrapped.”
The Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, Baroness Newlove, said:
“Victims will understandably feel unnerved and bewildered by today’s announcement.
It is the latest in a series of short-term, stop-gap measures prompted by chronic pressures on prison capacity. The cumulative effect has been to corrode confidence in the justice system and undermine victims’ sense of security.
I find it difficult to understand why this specific group of offenders has been targeted for early release and I am concerned about the implications for victim safety. This cohort will either have committed sexual or violent offences or been assessed as posing an unacceptable risk of harm to the public. I will be seeking urgent clarity from the Lord Chancellor on how this policy will operate in practice – and what safeguards will be put in place to protect victims and uphold public trust.
If the probation service, the Secretary of State and the Parole Board have all judged these individuals to pose a risk of harm to the public, then reducing time served on recall can only place victims and the wider public at an unnecessary risk of harm.
I will be writing to the Secretary of State to raise concerns on behalf of victims. I hope the government will listen – and reconsider whether this is a responsible or proportionate way to address the current pressures on our prison estate”.
Meanwhile, Ellie Butt, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Refuge, said:
“Refuge has consistently raised concerns about the serious safety risks posed to survivors of domestic abuse as a result of prison early release schemes like the SDS40. While we recognise the need to ease pressure on prison estates, this latest development – in which recalled offenders will be released after only 28 days – is another disappointing reminder of how survivors’ safety is not a priority when decisions are being made.
Domestic abuse is a pattern of coercion and control that is often perpetrated over many years. While perpetrators may be released with licence conditions, including avoiding contact with survivors, they frequently breach conditions to continue their campaign of abuse.
Now, under new rules, if a perpetrator were to breach these conditions and be recalled to prison, they could be free to offend again in less than a month. When so few perpetrators are recalled for breaching conditions, this represents a further weakening of protections for survivors. This will likely cause significant worry among survivors, and it is particularly alarming that these measures were introduced without consulting the Domestic Abuse Commissioner or the VAWG sector, and without publishing an impact assessment.
Even though released offenders will be monitored by the Probation Service, we have strong concerns about probation service’s ability to adequately monitor domestic abuse perpetrators. When probation officers miss opportunities to correctly assess and manage the risk of harm posed to survivors, this can have devastating, and sometimes fatal consequences.
Following last week’s introduction of the Victims and Courts Bill, we welcome the Government’s plans to expand the scope of the Victim Contact Scheme to all survivors of domestic abuse so that they will know if and when their perpetrator is being released. However, we have little confidence that this information will be consistently shared with survivors during a 28-day recall period.
Refuge reiterates our call for all perpetrators of domestic abuse and VAWG related offences to be exempt from early release schemes and other prison overcrowding measures due to the high risk of harm they pose to survivors of domestic abuse…”
Isabelle Younane, Head of External Affairs at Women’s Aid said:
“Since the introduction of the Early Release Scheme (SDS40) Women’s Aid has expressed concerns around how Government can ensure that its approach to addressing prison overcrowding does not come at the expense of the safety of women and children – particularly in the context of its commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.
Sadly, we’ve seen these risks become a reality and women and children are not being protected. We’ve heard from member services about predatory perpetrators with a long history of domestic abuse being released early, only to reoffend within days.
While we recognise the need to address prison overcrowding, Government plans to release prisoners who have been recalled to custody after just 28 days raises fresh concerns that perpetrators of domestic will be among those released. We urge Government to set out how it will guarantee dangerous perpetrators will be exempt from this new scheme, as so many slipped through the net as part of SDS40.
The nature of domestic abuse means that the risk of repeat offending is high. All steps need to be taken to ensure that women and children who are experiencing domestic abuse are not put at further risk of harm or re-traumatisation.”
For the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s Press Release see here
For the Victim’s Commissioner’s Press Release see here
For Refuge’s Press Release, see here
For the Women’s Aid Press Release see here
Original reporting by Family Law Week