During the General election there were two incidents where the performance of our prison and probation services were highlighted.
In one, the terrorist attacker on London Bridge , Usman Khan, had been released from jail on licence. In the second, Joseph McGann, described as Britain’s most dangerous rapist, was released from jail by mistake.
Whilst no-ne can condone any mistakes made by the prison and probation services; the following also needs to be noted:
- Real resources for our Probation Services are down £1 billion since 2010
- The number of probation staff has halved between 2011 and 2018. In 2011 there were 18,655 probation staff; in 2018 there were 9,574
- During this period, Chris Grayling, when Justice Secretary in 2014, introduced a part privatisation of the Probation Service which has subsequently been damningly criticised by Inspectors and Parliamentary Committees
Mark Roberts 