Victims and survivors “will be put in harm’s way” with “devastating consequences”, domestic abuse commissioner says
Violent partners will be allowed to “return to harassing, stalking and abusing” with impunity under a bill before parliament that is supposed to ease prison overcrowding, a watchdog has warned the lord chancellor.
In a letter to David Lammy, the domestic abuse commissioner, Dame Nicole Jacobs, said the sentencing bill’s aim to re-release the vast majority of offenders recalled to prison after 56 days would mean that victims and survivors “will be put in harm’s way” and lead to “devastating consequences”.
The letter, which has been shared with the Guardian, comes as ministers face unprecedented pressure to use the bill, which is at its second reading in the House of Lords, to free space in England and Wales’ jails and ease pressure on a creaking criminal justice system.
The letter was disclosed after Lammy on Tuesday told MPs that 91 inmates had been wrongly set free since April this year, and claimed that “prisons throughout the country are underfunded, they’re understaffed, and they’re operating under relentless strain”.
