Around 1,700 prisoners are expected to be released on Tuesday from jails across England and Wales in a bid to cut overcrowding. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood says: “It was the only option left on the table because the alternative would have seen the total collapse of the criminal justice system in this country.” Report by Jonesia. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00We inherited a prison system on the point of collapse.
00:04This is not a change that we wanted to make, it was the only option left on the table
00:08because the alternative would have seen the total collapse
00:11of the criminal justice system in this country.
00:13We would have seen the breakdown of law and order
00:16because courts would not have been able to conduct trials
00:19and the police would not have been able to make arrests
00:21and that's not something that I was prepared to sit back and allow to happen.
00:25So this is a difficult decision and I understand that people will be concerned
00:29but we've tried to implement this change in a way that maximises public protection.
00:34So there are robust exclusions to this policy
00:37and that includes all sexual offences are excluded from the changes that we are making
00:42as are all offences of serious violence, terror offences
00:46and some offences connected to domestic abuse.
00:48So we've taken every measure available to us to roll out these changes
00:53in a way that protects the public and meets the concerns that I know some people will have
00:57but this change had to be made, it was the only option on the table
01:01and that is because the alternative to not making this change
01:04would have been to allow the prison system to collapse
01:07and therefore to allow law and order in this country to collapse.