00:00The government is changing the rules around prisoner release as it tries to tackle overcrowding across England and Wales.
00:07We've been on the streets of Liverpool to get your take on the issue.
00:09It has to be sorted. We've seen enough on the television about everything and it's got to be sorted properly.
00:17Did you talk to an ex-police officer there?
00:19From a long while ago.
00:21A long while ago. I did nine years and I met.
00:26But, yeah, I think, I don't know, I think the judicial system is crazy. Absolutely crazy.
00:35I don't think you should be going to prison for doing silly things. Like smoking marijuana. You shouldn't be going
00:41to prison for that.
00:42But people who have done something seriously wrong, yeah, off you go.
00:46And this early release scheme, I'm dead set against it.
00:54Don't get me wrong, I'm a working class fella.
00:59Through and through. So I've got no stiff upper lip or nothing like that.
01:04But I'm very, very pro-police.
01:09Mind you, I'm very, very pro-everything that's called.
01:11I don't know much about prisons and I don't want to know.
01:17They're the people, they're the experts. See what they can do.
01:20I think there's, there's too strict on certain things and they're too flimsy on other things.
01:26I know the part being put in possession.
01:29The thing is, each government should have been building with more and more prisons.
01:33Another topic or subject at the moment is, you know, this business, prison overcrowding.
01:40Well, I say quite frankly, to use, well, I'll be perfectly frank, let them rot.
01:49Stick six or eight of them in the cells.
01:52Build more prisons.
01:54Under the current scheme, some prisoners can be released after serving 40% of a fixed-term sentence,
01:59rather than the usual 50%.
02:02The Sentencing Act 2026, which became law earlier this year,
02:06allows that threshold to be reduced to one-third of a sentence.
02:10The act also allows prisoners serving standard determinative sentences
02:13of more than four years of violent and sexual offences
02:16to have their automatic release point reduced from two-thirds to halfway.
02:21Andy Burnham has said he understands the anguish felt by bereaved families
02:24following changes to the early release programme,
02:26but stopped short of apologising to them.
02:29The Victims Commissioner for England and Wales, Claire Waxham,
02:32says she's seeking assurance the government can manage offenders in the community
02:36while protecting victims and responding quickly when risks emerge.
02:40At the end of August, Mr Burnham has said prisoners would be excluded
02:43from the sentencing changes if jailed for offences including manslaughter,
02:47causing death by dangerous driving and causing or allowing the death of a child.
02:51The Prison Reform Trust says the government recognises the pressure
02:54facing the prison system, but argues that increasing capacity
02:57does not address the crisis.
