Burnham should dump the Sentencing Act NOW… length of jail time shouldn’t depend on how many prison spaces there are

FIVE minutes into his new job as Secretary of State for Defence and Wes Streeting went on the defensive after being caught on “hot mic” at a gathering of the new Cabinet in the Downing Street garden, joking that the new Justice Secretary Alex Norris “wants to let them all out”. It was a silly joke to make, even if he thought the microphone was turned off, as surely he knows how sensitive a topic it is when Labour is just about to release killers after they have served just half of their sentences. A prison officer at London’s HMP Brixton Credit: Getty Andy Burnham wants to retain his popularity ratings Credit: Shutterstock Editorial This week, the mother of PC Andrew Harper, who ended up being dragged along the road for over a mile by three thugs while investigating the theft of a quad bike, revealed that she has been sent a letter by the Ministry of Justice advising her that two of her son’s killers could soon be released. They will have served just six and a half years in jail, half of their manslaughter sentences. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! Whatever happened to the promise, made when the death penalty was abolished in the 1960s, that life would mean life? In many cases taking someone’s life now means a short spell in the sin bin before being let out to start all over again. READ MORE FROM ROSS CLARK For PC Harper’s family, including his widow, whom he married just a month before he was killed in August 2019, it really will be a life sentence. They are never going to get over losing him in such dreadful circumstances. The pain will never go away. Last night, our new Prime Minister, who wants to retain his popularity ratings, was believed to be considering dumping the Sentencing Act, a bomb which was planted under the justice system by Keir Starmer. The legislation, which allows the mass release of killers and rapists after serving just half their sentences rather than two-thirds as before, has been sold to the public as a desperate measure to reduce prison overcrowding. Most read in The Sun But it is yet one more case of liberal attitudes being forced on society by stealth. In opposition, Labour backed the campaign for a Harper’s Law, which would guarantee life sentences for anyone killing emergency workers in the course of their duty. Yet once in power, they let killers of police officers out on the streets instead. If we are short of prison places, why can’t the Government put its effort into providing more? There was a time when UK governments responded in that way. Between the mid-1990s, when the then Home Secretary Michael Howard rightfully declared that “prison works”, and 2010 the prison population doubled. Then, the growth in new places began to stall. In recent years it has been more or less frozen at just under 90,000. It is as if the Government has decided there should be a fixed quota of criminals, and that prisons, like its failed asylum deal with France, should operate along the lines of one in, one out. Sorry, but it just isn’t good enough. The length of someone’s jail sentence should depend solely on the seriousness of the crime they have committed, not on capacity constraints of the prison system. The new Prime Minister is believed to be considering dumping the Sentencing Act PC Harper’s family will never get over losing him in such dreadful circumstances Credit: PA But it isn’t just prison places which are the issue. Embedded within the criminal justice system are rather too many judges, officials and policy makers who refuse to believe in prison, or even in the principle of punishment itself, and who will take every opportunity which comes their way to water down sentences or keep offenders out of jail altogether. In their minds, criminals are never truly bad people, it is just that society has mistreated them. I am all for trying to rehabilitate offenders where possible, but that should never mean shortening sentences. If murderers are going to come to terms with the pain they have caused they will understand why they need to have their freedom taken away, not plead to be let out. Thankfully, there is one hopeful sign that the end may finally be in sight for the let-’em-all-out brigade. Police are investigating Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust for corporate manslaughter for its role in allowing Valdo Calocane out on the street to kill two university students and a school caretaker in 2023. The paranoid schizophrenic was known to turn violent when he failed to take his medication, yet was freed from a secure hospital regardless. It was revealed earlier this year that one of the factors was that staff at the NHS trust believed young black men to be over-represented in prisons and secure hospitals. The result was three innocent people dead, three grieving families — and to turn Calocane from a troubled young man into a killer. That is where hyper-liberal attitudes lead. Now that NHS officials, prison authorities, probation staff and other officials know that they themselves may be held to be complicit in crimes committed by people whom they negligently set free, hopefully we will see a change in practice. The rights of the public to go about their business without being attacked or murdered might finally get a look in, not just the rights of the criminals. Comment now