Victims of domestic violence fear attackers will be released from overcrowded prisons

Victims of domestic abuse are withdrawing applications for court orders designed to protect them amid fears their abusers will serve shorter prison sentences as offenders are released early to ease prison overcrowding in England. AND he learned.

The move comes as the Prison Governors Association (PGA) calls on the next government to expand the early release scheme, which allows prisoners serving sentences of less than four years to leave prison early.

In October, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk announced the implementation of an early release scheme to allow prisoners to leave prison 18 days earlier. This was changed to 60 days in March and 70 days in May.

Last week the PGA called for a further extension of the measure.

The latest Ministry of Justice figures, published on 28 June, show that the prison population in England and Wales is 87,360 and the usable operational capacity is 88,818.

In an open letter, the PGA said: “What any new government needs now is an immediate change to the legislation so that convicted prisoners are routinely released from custody after serving 40 per cent of their sentence.

“This must be applied retroactively to all convicted prisoners currently in custody. This will result in a significant reduction in the number of people in prison, which will alleviate this crisis.”

It added: “Unless there is a significant reduction in the prison population now, the CJS (criminal justice system) will fail and society will be put at risk.”

However, organisations supporting victims of domestic violence say that because of the emergency measures in place, they are already at risk of harm.

The government has insisted that offenders convicted of sexual, terrorism or serious violent offences are not eligible for early release under the scheme. However, perpetrators of domestic violence are not exempt.

This is despite Conservatives recognising violence against women and girls as a strategic policing requirement, and these crimes are therefore considered to be as serious as terrorism, serious and organised crime and child sexual exploitation.

Of the 2.1 million people aged 16 and over who experienced domestic abuse in the financial year ending March 2023, 1.4 million were women, the England and Wales Crime Survey estimates.

One of the women’s rights defenders and founder of an NGO supporting victims of domestic violence said: AND At least five women her organization supports have withdrawn their applications for non-violence orders.

“More women may be harmed”

Annie Gibbs, founder of Amour Destiné, said: “The early release scheme has a negative impact on victims because it makes them feel that the harm they have suffered is minimised by the early release of their perpetrators. Some have also changed their minds when seeking a non-molestation order.”

Ms Gibbs said a total of five women supported by Amour Destiné had decided to withdraw their non-molestation applications in relation to the implementation of the early release scheme.

Just last week, Ms Gibbs added, another woman withdrew her application for a non-molestation order.

“We support women because some of them said: ‘why if they (their perpetrators) come forward?’ They don’t want to expose themselves to such traumatic experiences,” she said.

A women’s rights advocate said an increasing number of women were seeking mental health help after returning to relationships with their abusers following their release from prison after serving a short sentence.

Ms Gibbs added: “More women may experience harm, potentially returning to their perpetrators when they are released early, and may also be under pressure to resume relationships when others are reluctant to come forward for help and support.”

Women’s Aid and Refuge was among 14 organisations specialising in combating violence against women and girls (VAWG) to demand that the government take action to exclude perpetrators of domestic violence and other forms of violence against women and girls from the programme.

Amy Bowdrey, policy and public relations officer at Refuge, said the scheme would further erode women and girls’ trust in the criminal justice system.

Ms Bowdrey also said it put them at risk of physical harm.

“There is clear evidence that the risk of physical harm to victims of domestic violence is increasing,” she said.

A government analysis of Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR) conducted between October and September 2019 found that 46% of victims had been previously targeted by their perpetrator, almost always by their previous partner, and 64% of DHR cases had aggravating factors identified, the most common of which was coercive control.

“This is certainly a growing concern for survivors given the rapid expansion of this program and the fact that it is not effectively planned,” Ms Bowdrey said.

She added: “I believe it is absolutely essential that any government, any political party that comes into power, makes it a priority to exclude perpetrators of domestic violence from the early release system, and also takes all further measures to reduce the prison population.”

Charlotte Woodward, national training manager at the National Centre for Domestic Violence, said the organisation, which provides free support to victims of domestic violence, typically helping them obtain court orders from their local county court, was expecting an increase in referrals.

Ms Woodward said: “We receive around 110,000 referrals a year so we get quite a lot of work and we help people get civil protection orders through the court.

“We anticipate an increase in referrals because people often feel unprotected if and when an offender is to be released. So as soon as the criminal orders and bail conditions end, they often turn to civil protection if it is still required.”

“Total mess”

Ms Woodward said the early release scheme could encourage victims to co-operate with the criminal justice system.

She said: “A lot of people won’t want to get involved because it’s too overwhelming for them. I think that feeling of ‘what’s the point’ will only grow.”

She added: “I think the second thing that really worries us is that this is a knee-jerk plan. It’s designed to alleviate chaos in prisons. It has nothing to do with people’s safety.”

James Rossiter, communications director at the Criminal Bar Association, said judges were “caught between a rock and a hard place” because they had to take prison overcrowding into account when making sentencing decisions and impose sentences tailored to the harm caused in each individual case.

Mr Rossiter said the current situation was a “total mess”.

He said: “Delays in trying people and constant changes in public perceptions about whether people will be convicted and serve their sentences undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system. They undermine the confidence of those accused of crime, complainants, victims of crime and their families.”

The main political parties have pledged in their election manifestos to tackle prison overcrowding and violence against women, but leading victim advocacy groups say the early release programme undermines promises to address the latter.

A Labour Party spokesman said: AND“Conservatives have allowed our prisons to become a powder keg waiting to explode.

“They now operate under a cloak of secrecy, not honestly disclosing the measures they are taking – including who they are releasing from prison early.

“Only Labour can turn the page and get this crisis under control. Labour will build the prisons that the Tories promised but never delivered. We will focus on tackling recidivism so that prisons no longer become breeding grounds for crime.

“At the same time, we will deliver on our mission to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade. We will deploy specialist rape and sexual offences teams in every police force and introduce new rape courts to put dangerous offenders behind bars.”

A Government spokesman said: “The police and prison service have long-established procedures for managing short-term capacity issues and the Civil Service is working closely with partners across the justice system to make sure we have the prison spaces we need to keep people safe.”

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “We have overseen the biggest prison expansion since the Victorian era, delivering more than 13,000 new prison places since 2010, including more than 6,000 since 2019, keeping criminals behind bars.”