Justice Secretary Cannot Say How Many Early Release Prisoners Were Tagged
Alex Norris said it is «too soon» to know how many of the roughly 700 men freed from English and Welsh jails this week were fitted with monitoring devices, despite earlier assurances from the Ministry of Justice.
Alex Norris, the UK justice secretary, has been unable to say how many prisoners released early from jails in England and Wales this week have been fitted with electronic monitoring tags, despite previous reassurances from his department. In an interview on Sunday, Norris said it was «too soon» to establish how many of the roughly 700 male prisoners let out on Thursday had been given the devices.
The admission raises questions about the operational readiness of the early release scheme, which is designed to ease chronic overcrowding in the prison estate. The government has repeatedly presented tagging as a safeguard to ensure that prisoners freed ahead of their scheduled release date remain subject to monitoring and curfew conditions. Norris’s comments suggest that the full picture of compliance is not yet available, leaving uncertainty over how many of those released are actually being tracked.
The justice secretary also addressed the government’s decision to abandon plans for judge-only trials, a measure that had been considered as a way to clear the backlog in the courts. He said that introducing legislation for judge-only trials would have been «complicated to implement», but insisted that court backlogs would still fall despite the U-turn. The proposal had been floated as a response to delays in the criminal justice system, but it faced opposition from legal professionals and concerns about the right to trial by jury.
Norris’s interview comes amid wider scrutiny of the early release programme, which has seen hundreds of prisoners leave custody before the end of their sentences. The scheme applies to certain male prisoners in England and Wales and is intended to reduce pressure on prisons that are operating close to capacity. Tagging is typically used to monitor curfews and movement, but the effectiveness of the programme depends on how many released prisoners are actually fitted with the devices and how well the monitoring is enforced.
The Ministry of Justice has previously said that tagging would be used where appropriate, but the secretary of state’s inability to provide a figure on Sunday suggests that data collection is still ongoing. Critics argue that without clear numbers, it is difficult to assess whether the scheme is working as intended or whether public safety is being compromised. The government has argued that early release is a necessary measure to prevent prisons from running out of space, but the policy has been controversial.
Norris’s comments on the court backlog U-turn add another dimension to the justice portfolio. The government had been considering legislation to allow judge-only trials in an effort to speed up cases, but the plan was dropped after concerns were raised about its impact on the jury system. The justice secretary said the decision was taken because the legislation would have been complicated to implement, but he maintained that other measures would help reduce the backlog.
The early release scheme and the tagging programme are part of a broader effort to manage the prison population, which has been under strain for years. The government has faced criticism from opposition parties and campaigners who argue that releasing prisoners early without adequate monitoring could put the public at risk. The Ministry of Justice has said that public protection remains a priority and that tagging is one of several tools used to manage offenders in the community.
As the released prisoners begin to settle back into society, the question of how many are being monitored electronically remains unanswered. Norris’s statement that it is «too soon» to say indicates that the government may not yet have a full account of the tagging process. The coming days are likely to bring further scrutiny as figures are compiled and questions are asked about the effectiveness of the scheme.
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