Northamptonshire homelessness charity warns early prison release will see more living on streets

A homelessness charity has warned of "swapping a prison crisis with a homelessness crisis" as around 1,700 inmates are expected to be let out of prison early.

Under a scheme brought in by the government in a bid to ease overcrowding in prisons, some offenders will be released after serving just 40% of their sentences.

But while Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had been forced into the position to avoid "unchecked criminality" and "police unable to make arrests", charities fear the knock-on impact has not been considered.

Northampton Hope Centre is worried its service could be overwhelmed with people released from the nearby Five Wells prison in Wellingborough.

Joanne Pritchard, Head of Service Delivery and Partnerships at the charity, said it already had around 40 to 50 people accessing its service every day, but was expecting that number to rise.

"We could see a potential increase of 50%, that's going to put a massive strain on our services and others, with nowhere for these people to go," she said.

"There are people that have been in prison that have maybe turned their lives around, they've come off the drugs or whatever, and they're probably looking forward to a new life and come out to find there's nothing.

"There's no housing, no support put in place, they're told to go and present down at probation... and then they're normally signposted onto services like Hope.

"But they are faced with spending the night on the streets with just the clothes they've left prison in."

Ms Pritchard said the service was already struggling and this would have a "massive impact".

"There's a real concern that are we gonna have enough donations and stuff to feed these people? Can we clothe them? Can we offer them all showers?" she added.

Ms Pritchard is also worried that having nowhere to go will lead to people ending up back in prison.

"We tend to find that not a lot of people want to deal with people with criminal convictions, so it's really hard to move them along the pathway," she said.

"It normally results in people either turning back to drugs or alcohol and ending up reoffending just to go back in prison and get a roof over their head and three meals a day."

On Saturday Sir Keir Starmer said he had been forced into the position because the Tory government had not built enough prison capacity.

Ahead of Tuesday's release of prisoners, No 10 spokeswoman added: “As the Prime Minister said this weekend, no prime minister should be in a position where there are not enough prison places.

“That is why we took the immediate decision that we did. And without doing so, prisons would have completely run out of places, and we faced unchecked criminality on our streets with police unable to make arrests.”

She added: “This is another difficult, tough, but necessary action that we’ve taken.

“The approach that the Government’s taken is to ensure that we have safeguards in place so that we can protect the public, and we also recognise how incredibly difficult this will be for victims, and most importantly, under the release plans – which must be in place for every prisoner leaving – under those plans, victims will be told ahead of time. That is important.

“There are also exemptions to ensure that offenders for violent and serious offences are not eligible for release under the scheme.

“Similarly, everyone must be released with a release plan that includes having somewhere to live once they leave prison and support to find work.”

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