PSA President Nick Smart has commented in relation to the prison early release scheme and has joined calls from chief officers, Thames Valley Police and the Police Federation of England and Wales for those convicted of offences against emergency service workers to be exempt from the scheme.
He said: "The situation facing our prisons is deeply concerning, and a dangerous and damaging result of the chronic underfunding of the criminal justice system.
“We face the exceptionally traumatic situation in which victims of horrendous and deeply harmful offences are seeing the perpetrators of their crimes being released early, and ultimately failing to see true justice.
“We, along with many others, have called for an overhaul of the criminal justice system for years. We were promised a Royal Commission seven years ago, which never happened. This has not been a priority for over a decade, and has been allowed to decline into the state it is now.
“We are now in crisis. Every part of the system is understaffed, underinvested in, and overwhelmed by demand. It is not working in harmony and the public and victims deserve better.
“The early release scheme does nothing to instil confidence in the criminal justice system within the general public, and it is likely that police will face the brunt of this as the visible side of this system. This loss of confidence will be hard to turn around.
“We support calls for anyone who is serving a sentence linked to an offence against an emergency service worker to not be considered for early release, in the same way as those convicted of the most serious crimes.
“As colleagues in probation services struggle with their workloads and as prisons struggle to fully prepare offenders for release without the correct resources to do so, police will be expected to pick up the pieces.
“Whilst this is damaging for our already over-stretched service, it is the impact on victims and survivors that should cause us the most concern. It is hard to imagine what they must be going through when knowing their offenders are being released far earlier than their sentence dictated. They have been let down.
"Again, our call is clear. Police reform must happen and is being progressed, but it cannot happen in isolation. Reform of our entire criminal justice system is essential and must happen now."
He said: "The situation facing our prisons is deeply concerning, and a dangerous and damaging result of the chronic underfunding of the criminal justice system.
“We face the exceptionally traumatic situation in which victims of horrendous and deeply harmful offences are seeing the perpetrators of their crimes being released early, and ultimately failing to see true justice.
“We, along with many others, have called for an overhaul of the criminal justice system for years. We were promised a Royal Commission seven years ago, which never happened. This has not been a priority for over a decade, and has been allowed to decline into the state it is now.
“We are now in crisis. Every part of the system is understaffed, underinvested in, and overwhelmed by demand. It is not working in harmony and the public and victims deserve better.
“The early release scheme does nothing to instil confidence in the criminal justice system within the general public, and it is likely that police will face the brunt of this as the visible side of this system. This loss of confidence will be hard to turn around.
“We support calls for anyone who is serving a sentence linked to an offence against an emergency service worker to not be considered for early release, in the same way as those convicted of the most serious crimes.
“As colleagues in probation services struggle with their workloads and as prisons struggle to fully prepare offenders for release without the correct resources to do so, police will be expected to pick up the pieces.
“Whilst this is damaging for our already over-stretched service, it is the impact on victims and survivors that should cause us the most concern. It is hard to imagine what they must be going through when knowing their offenders are being released far earlier than their sentence dictated. They have been let down.
"Again, our call is clear. Police reform must happen and is being progressed, but it cannot happen in isolation. Reform of our entire criminal justice system is essential and must happen now."