‘It’s shocking. This shouldn’t happen’: Andy Burnham calls prisoner release an ‘indictment on previous government’

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has called the controversial early release scheme for prisoners an ‘indictment on the previous government’. 

The scheme introduced by Labour has already seen almost 2,000 offenders freed early this week in a bid to cut overcrowding in prisons. But the decision has left prisoners and councils in uncertainty.  

It is understood the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is only providing accommodation for up to 12 weeks, leading to fears of eventual homelessness and reoffending as a result.

Ex-offenders leaving prisons have also reported ‘appalling conditions’ inside prisons, including widespread drug use and rat infestations. 

Mr Burnham blamed the previous government for the ‘emergency decision’ and the state of prisons. 

Burnham said: “I feel it’s an indictment on the last government because that’s the reality they left. And it’s shocking, isn’t it? This shouldn’t happen, it shouldn’t be that people are released in this way but that’s just the state of the system that the last government left behind. 

“When I was in government with Gordon Brown, there was a plan to build prisons that [the Conservatives] they scrapped. These things have consequences. 

“Here in Greater Manchester we have a chief constable who’s taking a tough approach to crime, arresting more people, charging more people, bringing more people to justice. If you don’t have a prison system and a criminal justice system that can support the kind of approach to policing and crime that the public want to see, then it all falls down. 

“People can point the finger squarely at the door of Sunak, Truss, May, Cameron and Johnson.” 

Pressed by Mike Sweeney on whether Labour was using the previous government as an ‘excuse’, the mayor added: “This mess in the criminal justice system, in the prison system, was not created by Labour. It was created by the Conservative party neglecting these issues.”