On Tuesday, the government went ahead with the early release of around 1,000 prisoners despite public outcry at the first wave.
One inmate, Daniel Dowling-Brooks, gave a “big up” to Keir Starmer whilst celebrating with his family and friends who arrived outside of HM Prison Swaleside.
Speaking on The Division Bell, The Express’ Sam Lister said: “The releases we saw this week, these were hardened criminals. These are people who have sentences of five years or more.”
Dowling-Brooks, Sam explained: “had been in for seven years, for kidnap and GBH. He came out, was picked up by his mates with a Mercedes G-wagon and a Bentley, and he did the thumbs up.”
“And I think that really encapsulates the problem we’ve got with this, that it does not look great to people out there who are thinking: Are we safe on the streets with these people coming out?”
This week’s guest, Matthew Laza, former advisor for Ed Milliband agreed with Sam saying the decision to let the criminals out early wasn’t just difficult but “unpalatable.”
“They’re unpalatable not just to the public, but to the politicians doing it. I mean, we saw the prime minister said he was really angry when that guy gave him the thumbs up. I know that’s understandable because these are people who’ve committed some really serious crimes and they’re being let out early.”
Sam sympathised with the “public’s point of view, that they see people who have been idiotic on Twitter being jailed and then they see people who have been done for kidnap coming out and being picked up by their mates and released early.”
She explained how in the “first wave of prisoner release, 37 were released that shouldn’t have been because they were in there for domestic violence and sexual offences who have now been recalled back to prison.”
One of the offenders is Amari Ward, who was released during the early releases and sexually assaulted a woman on the same day.
Matthew joked that: “It’s amazing that a bit of the Home Office actually worked, as we know that John Reed said 20 years ago that it wasn’t fit for purpose.”