Starmer ‘shocked’ over the state of prisons overcrowding – London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com

The Prime Minister has said he is “shocked” over the prisons overcrowding crisis and has revealed it is “worse than I thought.”

Sir Keir Starmer made the admission as the Labour government are looking at plans to free more prisoners early.

The Prime Minister who is a barrister and the former head of the Crown Prosecution Service said he was “pretty shocked” and the Conservative government were “reckless.”

The Home Secretary Yvette Cooper warned the to ease prison space there is no “quick fix” and she accused the Tories of leaving a “legacy” of “chaos.”

Sir Keir said, “I’m pretty shocked that it’s been allowed to get into that situation. It’s reckless to allow them to get into that place.

“We’ll be saying more about that in short order.”

The Guardian, reported that Sir Keir said, “It is shocking for our country to have got into a state where we have too many prisoners and not enough prison places.

“To a point where any government is now in a position where it has to release prisoners early. That is a shocking indictment. That is a total failure of government.”

Home Office minister Dan Jarvis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, “We’ve inherited a situation where our prisons are in crisis, and across Government and led by the Secretary of State for Justice, Shabana Mahmood, decisions will be taken in the near future about how best to proceed.

“All of those decisions will be very carefully informed by the guiding priority, which is public safety.

“We need to keep the public safe. We will always act to keep the public safe, but we will have to make decisions in the coming days about prison population.”