PSA President Nick Smart spoke with Channel 4 News yesterday (Tuesday 10th November) about the impacts of the Prison Early Release Scheme.
Nick has repeatedly raised concerns over the the lack of any additional resourcing provided to the police service to deal with the increased demand this causes. In this year's conference speech, he also formally called for a Royal Commission into the criminal justice system.
In his interview he says:
"We are working with partner agencies to do our level best to mitigate the risk of these early release prisoners coming out, but it is a difficult task."
"There’s pressure in the prison system, but the burden is then passed to the police, without any extra funding, without any extra officers, to then do a lot of intensive work with probation to manage these individuals."
"We understand the pressures on the prison service, but I guess the question is, where do you want the risk? Do you want your risk inside prisons or do you want it on the streets? If you want it on the streets, then you’ve got to resource the partner agencies adequately to deal with that and mitigate the risk."
"Early release is a symptom of a criminal justice system in absolute crisis. The prisons are over crowded, there’s an 80,000 case backlog in the courts, probation and CPS are overwhelmed, and that demand comes to the police service, who are already overwhelmed and underfunded."
"We will always be there to answer emergency calls, but we have to prioritise what we deal with. Ultimately something has to give. If you're a member of the public and you're not getting the service that you want, you get frustrated, so it’s the police’s trust and confidence that then suffers, because of a demand that’s placed upon us by government. And that is really frustrating, and it’s demoralising for cops."
His full interview can be viewed here: https://www.channel4.com/news/police-dont-have-the-resources-to-deal-with-prison-early-release-police-superintendent
Nick has repeatedly raised concerns over the the lack of any additional resourcing provided to the police service to deal with the increased demand this causes. In this year's conference speech, he also formally called for a Royal Commission into the criminal justice system.
In his interview he says:
"We are working with partner agencies to do our level best to mitigate the risk of these early release prisoners coming out, but it is a difficult task."
"There’s pressure in the prison system, but the burden is then passed to the police, without any extra funding, without any extra officers, to then do a lot of intensive work with probation to manage these individuals."
"We understand the pressures on the prison service, but I guess the question is, where do you want the risk? Do you want your risk inside prisons or do you want it on the streets? If you want it on the streets, then you’ve got to resource the partner agencies adequately to deal with that and mitigate the risk."
"Early release is a symptom of a criminal justice system in absolute crisis. The prisons are over crowded, there’s an 80,000 case backlog in the courts, probation and CPS are overwhelmed, and that demand comes to the police service, who are already overwhelmed and underfunded."
"We will always be there to answer emergency calls, but we have to prioritise what we deal with. Ultimately something has to give. If you're a member of the public and you're not getting the service that you want, you get frustrated, so it’s the police’s trust and confidence that then suffers, because of a demand that’s placed upon us by government. And that is really frustrating, and it’s demoralising for cops."
His full interview can be viewed here: https://www.channel4.com/news/police-dont-have-the-resources-to-deal-with-prison-early-release-police-superintendent