Offenders (Day of Release from Detention) Bill: Second Reading

I beg to move, that the Bill be now read a second time.

I am a simple man. Prior to researching this Bill, I hadn't spent a great deal of time thinking about the criminal justice system. I laboured under the belief that if you committed a crime, served your time, and paid back your debt to society, that you would be afforded every opportunity to succeed on release from prison, to make a fresh start.

I was very disappointed to find that this often isn't the case. That many people released from prison - especially on Fridays - are almost set up to fail from the moment they set foot off the prison estate.

They face a race against time to access statutory and non-statutory services. To meet their Probation Officer. To visit a pharmacy or GP. To sort out accommodation. All on a Friday. With services closing early. With some being a distance away, or even impossible to reach by public transport.

So, many end up homeless with no hope of accessing services until Monday morning at the earliest. So they have nowhere to stay, little support, and the world on their shoulders. Is it any surprise that up to 2/3 of people released without access to accommodation reoffend within a year?

This race against the clock is maddening. And with 1/3 of all releases taking place on a Friday this is a numbers game. And the numbers are very high indeed. Reoffending costs the taxpayer £18bn a year. And 80% of crime is committed by reoffenders.

If we support people as they come out of prison, we can play a key role in reducing the significant societal and individual costs of reoffending, leading to fewer victims of crime and fewer communities dealing with its impact.

This Bill is an important step towards doing that. By making a simple change - varying the date of release for vulnerable people by up to 48 hours - we can relieve that time pressure and give people the opportunity to make that fresh start.

This small, but significant change would build on existing Government funding and support for people coming out of prison - including the funding of temporary accommodation for prison leavers at risk of homelessness. We need to end the practice of Friday releases for the most vulnerable, so they have the vital extra hours and days that they need to get support in place before the weekend arrives.

This is a move supported by charities, the third-sector, those working in prisons, the probation service, the Local Government Association, and by former offenders who have been through the system themselves. If the House will indulge me, I will pepper this speech with examples from some of them.

Last month I was fortunate to visit Wormwood Scrubs in London, to meet Governor Frost and her team. It was a fascinating, and eye-opening visit, and I am very grateful for the time that she and her team - and the brilliant third-sector organisations like StandOut - made to accommodate me and answer my banal questions.

Entering a prison, certainly entering the Scrubs, feels final. Walking through that series of remarkable Victorian buildings, the first thing that I noticed was how solid the place was. Big thick walls, heavy metal doors, and everything contained and segregated by keys. Each door is opened ahead of you, and closes behind you with a click. Your choices are limited to the space you have access to and the outside world feels maddeningly far away.

As Governor Frost explained to me, when you leave a prison like the Scrubs, setting foot outside the prison estate for the first time, you face what is really the "first independent choice you can make in a while."

If you are released on a Friday, you have precious little time to make those choices. If you choose poorly, you may well find yourself back in prison. Some would rather see their family than comply with appointments, for some their addiction takes priority. For others, they simply don't have the time to make their appointments.

If you reside in Wormwood Scrubs at His Majesty's Pleasure, but are released at 3pm on a Friday and have to see your probation officer in Cambridge that same day, what chance do you realistically have to make that appointment before 5pm?

I have spoken to prison leavers who were released from custody on a Friday, some were lucky and managed to get support, but the majority were left facing severe issues accessing key resettlement services, with some ending up on the streets over the weekend, waiting for housing services to reopen on Monday.

Even worse, I have spoken to people who are greeted by the smiling face of their drug dealer at the prison gates. Criminal gangs know just how hard working through your release checklist (parole officer, housing, pharmacy etc) can be, so they offer a hand out – at a very steep cost. And so, the merry-go-round continues. They are recalled to prison, and so it begins again.

I sit on the Home Affairs Select Committee and we are currently undertaking an enquiry into drugs. In Middlesborough, speaking to addicts about their life stories, this same issue came up again and again. Their experience is addiction, prison, release, shoplifting and other petty crimes, and imprisonment again. At no point does this process help them, or help society.

And in my own constituency, speaking to both Cumbria Police and the amazing Well Communities, I see these issues time and again. The nature of unstable releases means further addition, ripe pickings for drug gangs involved in county lines, and the exact opposite outcome that we might hope would be the case from imprisonment and rehabilitation.

The Chair of the Local Government Associations Safer and Stronger Communities Board, Cllr Caliskan, has said:

“With staff limitations at the weekend across a range of services, delays in accessing accommodation and a lack of early intervention from support services, vulnerable prison-leavers are at considerable risk of reoffending. In bringing release dates forward, this will ensure prison-leavers have enough time to access the right help and support to prevent them heading back towards previous criminal activities.”

I couldn’t agree more, if we want safer streets, we have to start by making access to vital services that reduce reoffending, easier.

If people don’t have a support structure in place upon release, including housing and healthcare, then we simply risk depositing vulnerable people back into the hands of those who will encourage harm over good. This is a point that was made again and again by the Governor of Wormwood Scrubs and her amazing team when I visited recently.

If the House will indulge me, I'd like to read the testimony of Stanley, supplied by the fantastic charity, NACRO:

The biggest problem is not having a roof over your head. So many people come straight out of prison with nowhere to live and go straight on the streets. They have nowhere to go, nothing to do and end up doing something stupid just to go back inside.

When you come out, there’s nothing. No phone, no money, no ID, and if you don’t have someone helping you – you’re alone.

Me – I’d lost weight in prison. My jeans don’t fit and I don’t have a belt. It was freezing and I had no jumper. Yet I couldn’t get my advance payment because I didn’t have any ID. They told me to come to the job centre to sort it out on the Monday, but what am I going to do over the weekend? And I’m supposed to start work on Monday, and that’s not a good look, making excuses on your first day. We’re being set up to fail. 99% will go back to prison because they have no choice.

I came out of prison homeless. They’ve known I’d be released homeless for months. Yet, released on a Friday, it’s getting late in the afternoon, and I still have nowhere to go. And the housing officer has now gone for the weekend. No wonder people reoffend.

I’ve got an appointment with substance misuse services, but they can’t see me until Monday. But I’m supposed to start my job on Monday. And I can’t get an advance payment for UC because I don’t have any ID. They told me to come and see them on Monday instead. So now I’m faced with the weekend, with just the discharge grant to my name. I need to buy myself some winter clothes – it’s freezing – and I need to eat.

I’ve got hospital appointments. I take 6 different types of pills. I’m starting a job on Monday and can’t go to the job centre on my first day of work. This is what people have to deal with all the time.

And this is the comment from a Nacro resettlement worker:

The holding cell on a Friday is rammed as such a high proportion of people in prison are released in Friday. Its made worse by those whose release dates were set for the weekend, and are being released on a Friday instead. The pressure on the prisons and resettlement services is incredible. Yet, so many are being released without any support. Nothing. They don’t know who their probation officer is. Where they need to go. What they need to do. And on a Friday, it’s a race against the clock before services close.

Unfortunately, for those without housing, the only option on a Friday is emergency accommodation if that is available. And then that person will have to through the whole process again on the Monday, all the while trying to get to a whole range of other appointments. And UC throws up another obstacle. Anyone who has been in and out of prison and has claimed an advancement payment after a previous release, is no longer eligible for another advance payment. Released on a Friday with just the discharge grant, those impacted are faced with a long weekend with just £76 pounds to their name.

For many offenders, the day of release from custody is the realisation of a long-awaited goal, and a chance to turn their backs on crime for good, but the reality for those released on a Friday can be fraught with practical challenges. Those who need to access multiple support services, such as local authority housing and mental health services, before they close for the day can face a race against the clock. Many services close early and are then shut over the weekend. And with approximately a third of all releases falling on a Friday, those services are under considerable additional pressure.

Failure to access vital support can increase an offender’s likelihood of reoffending. We know that the reoffending rate for adults released on a Friday is higher than for any other day of the week, and that those without stable accommodation on release are almost two-thirds more likely to reoffend.

Take the case of Simon, for example. Simon was released from a London prison in April 2021 and has a history of poor mental health and alcohol dependency. Due to his complex needs, he met the threshold for priority housing. On the Friday he was released, Simon received a phone call at 3pm saying no accommodation could be provided. This was despite Simon’s resettlement worker repeatedly chasing the local authority housing department. It was agreed that Simon would travel to stay with his brother in Ipswich, but he did not make the journey. His resettlement worker rang him several times on Friday evening, when it sounded like he was with other people, drinking on the streets. The resettlement worker was later advised that Simon had been recalled to prison shortly afterwards.

And then there is the example of Patrick, who was released from a 2-year sentence in prison. He had an ankle injury and was supplied with crutches upon his release, which limited his mobility, and therefore his ability to navigate multiple appointments across his residing area.

Although he was able to access his temporary accommodation that day, he was unable to address his other support needs on the day of release, such as his substance misuse issue. As a result, he had to wait until the following Monday to access support which put him at significant risk of further offending. Patrick did not then engage with services the following week and was recalled to prison shortly afterwards for failing to attend probation appointments.

By removing the barriers that a Friday release can create, we can ensure that custody leavers have a better chance to access the support they need to reintegrate into the community so that victims and the public are protected.

Currently, the law mandates that offenders due to be released on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday must be released on the preceding Friday, provided it is a working day. While this avoids releases on days when services are completely closed, the result is a bunching of releases on a Friday, with almost double the number of any other day of the week.

This Bill will amend that law to provide the Secretary of State for Justice a discretionary power to bring forward the release date of an offender by up to two eligible working days where that release date falls on a Friday or the day before a bank holiday.

Such a power will promote law-abiding reintegration into society by ensuring those leaving custody can access the support services they need upon release. In practice this power will be delegated to the prison Governor, or equivalent official, with the provision targeted at those most at risk of reoffending.

To be clear, we are not talking about dangerous or high-risk offenders, and there would be strict security screening of eligible prisoners.

This Bill is aimed at helping vulnerable individuals with complex needs who may need additional support to help them make the transition back to life outside of prison.

There is a fleeting window of opportunity for people on release from prison and we simply must not allow those who are serious about making positive and meaningful change in their lives to fall by the wayside.

We should not be setting people up to fail. This is not about softening sentencing. It is about making sure that the right support is in place at the right time to prevent them from immediately falling through the cracks.

Evidence suggests that a Friday release day has a disproportionate impact on those with complex needs, those who may have greater distances to travel upon release, or those with substance or mental health needs, who face an increased risk of homelessness.

Ministry of Justice research has also shown that the release date can make a 5% difference in the likelihood of reoffending, with 35% of those freed on a Monday re-convicted within a year, compared to 40% on a Friday.

And let's not forget: each of those individuals returned to prison represents a further uneccessary strain on the already stretched capacity of the prisons estate.

More crime, means more victims. And each of these instances of re-offending represent lost opportunities for reform after people have served their time and should be able to demonstrate their ability to rejoin and fully contribute to society.

Here is another example from Katie, a Reducing Reoffending Officer from NACRO:

In the past I have worked with many offenders who have been released on a Friday. Essex is a big area that includes 14 local authorities. HMP Chelmsford is a local Cat B resettlement prison, we have many prisoners that are in and out of custody on a regular basis.

Recently I worked with a man that has been in HMP Chelmsford approximately 7 times since I started the job in April 2019. This time he was released on a Friday. He has addiction issues and had been homeless for several years. Due to short prison sentences, we have been unable to do any meaningful work with him. My client had a probation appointment at 2pm in Colchester, a scripting appointment for his Methadone at 3pm and a housing assessment that had to be completed over the phone at 2.30pm. At some point he also needed to make his Universal Credit claim, again over the phone due to Covid. He was released with his mobile phone that he had when he was brought into custody. No charge and no credit.

Luckily he made his probation appointment, which took over an hour as he had a new probation officer, that he had not met before. He missed both his scripting appointment and his housing assessment. Most probation officers are mindful of other appointment on day of release, and will offer some leeway if they are aware of conflicting appointments, but this involves our service users speaking out, and some aren’t too good at making their voices heard, especially when they are fearful of upsetting their probation officer and being recalled.

Friday releases often require our clients to prioritise their appointments and what is important to them. Unfortunately they don’t always prioritise the right thing. Some would rather see their family than comply with appointments, for some their addiction takes priority.

For under-18s, a Friday release may mean a child going for two, or even three, days without meaningful contact with support services when they are at their most vulnerable. That is why this Bill applies to both adults and children sentenced to detention and will ensure the same provisions exist across the youth estate.

This overdue change will bring consistency across the youth estate and in respect of secure children's homes correct a long-standing omission.

It is worth remembering that 15% of under-18s are imprisoned over 100miles from their homes, and 41% over 50 miles away.

I recognise that the Government is doing fantastic work to reduce reoffending and protect the public – work that will benefit all custody leavers.

Several new roles such as Housing Specialists, Prison Employment Leads, Banking Leads and Neurodiversity Support Managers are being implemented which will further benefit individuals to better prepare for release, such as by ensuring they have a roof over their head, meaningful employment or education in place and access to essentials such as a bank account and identification.

If someone has the basics in place that they need then they are less likely to reoffend, and this then means less victims of crime and safer communities.

But for those released on a Friday, wider issues, such as time pressures and demand on Government and non-Government services, would remain without this Bill.

And it is worth considering what those wider pressures are on the system on Fridays. Prisoners are being prepared for court. Later in the day higher numbers of people are released in the day. And already pressurised housing services, offender managers, GPs and pharmacies face a surge in the closing hours of the closing day of the week.

All of this is avoidable.

By supporting this Bill, this House has an opportunity to provide offenders with vital extra time to meet their Probation or supervising officer and access services such as health ahead of the weekend, helping to cut crime and ultimately make our streets safer.

This Bill will help to safeguard the public by taking away a large part of the likelihood of reoffending created by 'cliff edge' releases.

I sincerely hope that the House will agree that by making the simple change that this Bill proposes - varying the date of release for vulnerable people by up to 48 hours - we can relieve that time pressure, take away that cliff edge, and give people the best opportunity to make a fresh start.

It seems to me that if we are serious about justice, about helping people to rebuild stable and rewarding lives, relieving prison capacity to improve outcomes, and about reducing re-offending, passing this Bill is an important step in the right direction.