The new government the UK is having to deal a serious crisis in its prison system. The new Labour administration made the decision Friday to release thousands prisoners before the convicts had finished serving their sentence. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer attributed the mess Britain's prisons service to a decade neglect and underinvestment the previous Conservative Party, which had been in power for 14 years. The prisoner population is nearly capacity. Inmates are having to be released early to accommodate newly-sentenced felons. Some will be released having served just 40 per cent their time. Mr Starmer said the problem was "pretty unforgivable, my book".
The UK's justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, warned a "total breakdown law and order" if prisons reached capacity. Ms Mahmood said: "Prisons are the point collapse". If space ran , there would be nowhere to put those arrested or newly sentenced. The justice system would be overloaded. Mahmood said there would be "looters running amok, smashing windows, robbing shops and setting neighbourhoods alight". There are currently only 1,451 places available. She blamed former leader Rishi Sunak and prisons ministers a "dereliction duty" and decimating the system. She called them: "The guilty men who put their political careers ahead the safety and security our country."
