Tel-Chai Nation

An update related to a previous topic, the following report from the Telegraph shows that the number of freed convicts who were sentenced to life for dangerous crimes has trebled (tripled) in five years:

The number of life-sentence prisoners being released from jail has almost trebled in only five years, new figures have revealed.

The annual total of "lifers" allowed out onto the streets has risen from 125 in 2000 to a record 351 last year.

Twenty-six of the 1,500 freed since 2000 have subsequently been convicted of further serious sexual or violent crimes.

The figures undermine the Government's pledge to be "tough on crime", say critics, who have accused officials of putting the public at risk with the widespread releases.

The alarming statistics were revealed by Sir Duncan Nichol, the chairman of the Parole Board, as he called for his organisation to be removed from Home Office control and transferred to Lord Falconer's Department for Constitutional Affairs.

The figures and Sir Duncan's reorganisation call will be fresh blows to John Reid, the Home Secretary, whose department is still reeling from the scandal of the wrongly freed foreign prisoners that led to the sacking of his predecessor, Charles Clarke.

David Davies, a Tory MP, said: "The public are being failed by a system which allows murderers and rapists back on to the streets to commit more offences. A life sentence should mean what it says, but at the moment it just means a few years watching television in a comfortable cell. We are the victims of a confidence trick by the Home Office."

Speaking at a conference at Cambridge University's law faculty, Sir Duncan also disclosed that 14 per cent of the 125 prisoners released in 2000-01 were subsequently recalled for re-offending or breaching licence conditions. But 28 per cent of the 330 life sentence prisoners released in 2003-04 were returned to jail.

Figures from the board's last annual report suggest that parole panels have become more willing to agree to the release of lifers. Between 1999 and 2001 only 17.2 per cent of applications were approved, but between 2002 and 2004 that figure rose to 21.5 per cent.

Most life sentence inmates serve a minimum number of years fixed by the trial judge, then come before a parole panel which decides whether they can be released. Research has found that panels have become more reluctant to overturn the verdict of the Probation Service when it recommends inmates for release.

The Human Rights Act of 2000 gave life sentence prisoners the right to read and challenge reports written about them. However, experts fear that the legislation has encouraged officials to be more lenient.

Another factor behind the sharp rise in releases is a jump in the number of life sentences handed down by judges. Many come under Labour's "two strikes" law, which was introduced in 1997 and imposed a life sentence on anyone convicted of a second serious sexual or violent offence — only for it to be repealed last year. The Sunday Telegraph revealed this year that one prisoner had been freed after serving only 15 months of a life sentence.

The Home Office was criticised this year after the murder of a young mother, Naomi Bryant, by Anthony Rice, who was released after serving 15 years of a life sentence for attempted rape. Andrew Bridges, the chief inspector of probation, said that Rice's human rights were put ahead of protecting the public.

Verna Bryant, the victim's mother, plans to sue the Government over the release of her daughter's killer.

I hope she does, because they deserve it. With news like this, it comes as no surprise to me if Tony Blair won't be missed upon departure from office. As premier, he's responsible for the appointment of these goons who destroy the justice and law enforcement system in Britain further and further, and he should know better than to let the inmates run the asylum. Not for nothing is the public in Britain angry at him, and his departure from office, if he means what he says, will be quite welcome.

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