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Prison Sentences (Early Release)
The Humble Petition of Mrs D Todd and others of like disposition,
That having lost her husband through the wilfully despicable act of one man, this man Alexander Dix should not be considered for early release. 3 years for the death of another person is not long enough. The
consideration that space is needed in prisons should not impact on offenders' prison sentences by means of reducing them.
Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House urges the Home Secretary to consider the plight of Mrs Todd and others in a similar situation and to endeavour to keep this person in prison for longer.
And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c. —[Presented by Steve Webb , Official Report, 2 July 2008; Vol. 478, c. 994 .] [P000226]
Observations from the Secretary of State for Justice:
The Government takes the issue raised very seriously and expresses its condolences to Ms Todd and her family; we would like to highlight the following points in response:
Under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, it is the statutory position that those offenders who receive a determinate sentence will be released into the community on licence at the halfway point of sentence. They remain under supervision, and liable to recall to prison should they breach the terms of their licence, until the end of their sentence.
Prisoners are released in this way in order that they can serve a proportion of their sentence on licence, which is an integral part of the sentence and necessary for the purposes of safely reintegrating offenders back into the community in a controlled and supervised way, and to reduce the risk of further offending. If offenders were to serve the whole of their sentence in custody it would not then be possible for them to be subject to supervision following release, as the supervision period must be within the overall period of the sentence imposed by the court.
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