Up to 4,000 low-risk prisoners could be released on licence, wearing electronic tags and under orders to stay at home, after the Easter weekend, the Lord Chancellor said, at an online evidence session of the House of Commons Justice Committee this week. Robert Buckland said this would balance fears of COVID-19 spreading in prisons with maintaining public confidence about freeing convicts early. He said the pandemic has created ‘an emergency’ in the country, and the tagging ‘gives the public the reassurance they are looking for’.
However, Dr Jo Farrar, Chief executive of the Prison Service, confirmed that the current 83,000 prisoner population would have to be reduced by between 10,000-15,000, for all prisoners to live in a single cell.
As of Monday evening, 6 April, 116 inmates in 43 prisons had tested positive for the coronavirus.
So far, six pregnant prisoners have been released, and there are plans to release up to 70 pregnant women and mothers with babies.
