Around 1,700 prisoners are set to be freed on Tuesday under an early release scheme that the jails watchdog warns will inevitably lead to reoffending.The mass release is aimed at cutting overcrowding and is on top of the 1,000-or-so prisoners normally freed each week.
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00:00Taylor says it's risky and it's inevitable that some of those released
00:04will commit further offences and be sent back. Of all the scandals we inherited I
00:09think the system with the prison system, the justice system, probably the worst of
00:13all. It's a difficult decision again but we tightened up the system
00:17considerably to what we inherited in terms that early release scheme so no
00:20violent offenders, no domestic abusers will be eligible for this. We've put
00:25those greater protections in place but I think the prison estate had less than
00:291% capacity in it. I mean that's just not an effective functioning system.
00:34Again decisions which should have been made prior to the election frankly were
00:38not because the Conservative Party had given up on governing and that is even
00:41more challenging than you'd usually expect but it is what we've had to do
00:45and we understand how difficult it is but again we're gonna fix the country
00:48and we're determined to do it. Do you accept it's risky? I accept this is never
00:52something anybody wants to do. I think we've taken as many risks out as
00:57possible but in a decision like this it's challenging. I mean there's no doubt
01:01it is challenging. Is it risky as the Chief Inspector of Prisons says it is? I would not want in the
01:06normal course of events anyone to be released early from their sentence
01:10unless that's in the usual way the justice system deals with that. I am
01:14confident my colleagues who deal with this, not only have they taken the
01:17difficult decision to make sure the justice system works, they've done so in
01:20a way which reduces the risk considerably from the early release
01:23scheme that we inherited but again it is, as you've described, it is a
01:27difficult decision.