Gordon Brown set to end early jail release scheme

[dipsydoodle]

Gordon Brown is set to announce the end of the controversial early release scheme for prisoners before the general election in an attempt to blunt an expected Tory assault on the government's law and order policies.

The Observer can reveal that urgent discussions are under way between No 10, the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office in preparation for an announcement within weeks.

Senior government sources say the prime minister may announce the end of the scheme in a major speech on law and order early next month, in which he is also expected to reveal new measures on neighbourhood policing.

Officials said the availability of prison places remained under review on a weekly basis, and that no final decision had been made. But a well-placed source said: "It is our intention to do this before the election if we can."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/14/gordon-brown-early-jail-release

[non sociopath skin]

1. Altogether now ... Dave, Gordo, Cleggy ...

"Anything right you do, I can do righter
I can do anything more right-wing than you ...

No you can't ... yes I can ...
Yes I can, yes I can ..."

Politicians. Don't you just LUV 'em!

The Skin

[dipsydoodle]

2. Yup

but I've always thought there was something perverse about the early release system anyway.

[Hopeless Romantic]

3. The Prime Minister seems to have been running his own easy release scheme of late

[tjwmason]

4. Because it's obviously better to have these decisions in the hands of a politician

running for election than in the hands of the prison service, probation service, or courts...