By Alan Travis
The Guardian
WADSWORTH, London — Thousands of murderers and rapists and other life-sentenced prisoners are released on temporary licences every year without the risk they pose to the public being properly assessed, according to official watchdogs.
The chief inspectors of prisons and probation say that too often the official risk assessments drawn up before long-term prisoners go out on temporary release are little more than summaries of the inmates’ accounts of their crimes and progress.
Although the re-offending rate for the 13,385 life-sentenced prisoners in England and Wales remains very low, at only 2% to 5%, the inspectors’ findings follow several high-profile cases over the summer when life prisoners released on licence allegedly committed serious crimes.
The justice secretary, Chris Grayling, ordered a review of the temporary release system after a convicted murderer, on his first day out, allegedly killed a “good samaritan”, and after a second case in which a released prisoner held up a London bank with a gun.
The critical joint report by the prisons and probation watchdogs says that the number of life-sentenced prisoners in England and Wales rose from fewer than 4,000 in 1998 to 13,385 this March.
A life sentence has also got longer, with the average mandatory lifer now spending 16 years behind bars compared to an average of 13 years in 2001.
Full story: Prisons’ risk test for temporary freed lifers is inadequate, say watchdogs