Martin Jones, the chief inspector of probation for England and Wales, has said he is “not confident” the service will cope when the new round of early prisoner releases starts in the autumn. In an interview with the BBC, he said: “Ultimately I’m not fully confident that the probation system will be able to cope with this massive work and there’s a risk that things will go wrong. Probation services are already under unprecedented pressure. They’re managing a caseload of 258,000 cases, that’s nearly three times the number that are in our prisons, and obviously the early release scheme will be increasing that pressure considerably.”
Burnham to chair Cobra meeting on heatwave
Andy Burnham is chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee this afternoon to discuss the heatwave and the climate crisis. The move comes after calls from the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, who posted on social media in response: “Good. Now we need action. Tax fossil fuel giants to pay for firefighting helicopters. A cool space in every community. A maximum working temperature. And no new oil and gas extraction in the North Sea. We cannot negotiate with the science.”
Police leaders urge block on PC Harper killers’ release
The Cobra announcement will not deflect all attention from the prisons crisis. Yesterday Burnham said he was “increasingly confident” that the new review of the early release scheme he has ordered will result in the killers of PC Andrew Harper not being let out. That has not silenced his critics. As Peter Walker, Rajeev Syal and Caroline Davies report, 50 police leaders, including every chief constable in England and Wales, have signed a letter urging him to do everything in his power to stop the killers benefiting from a programme designed to free up prison space, saying there is “a profound strength of feeling across policing” that this should not happen.
Conservative claims and warnings
The Conservatives are claiming that the changes in approach to this issue adopted by No 10 over the past week – denounced as a U-turn in the Daily Express splash, and described as “chaos” in the Times – are “re-traumatising” victims. And there are new warnings about what will happen when the early release scheme does start. Here is the agenda for the day: Morning: Andy Burnham is on a visit in the east of England. Afternoon: The funeral of Ann Widdecombe takes place at Buckfast Abbey in Devon. Afternoon: Burnham chairs a Cobra meeting to discuss the extreme heat.
