Reflection on the difficulties around releasing prisoners early

I wrote the first two paragraphs of this blog two weeks ago when the British Prime minister was coming under great pressure to block the early release of two prisoners. He’s since agreed not only not to release them but also not to release anybody convicted of manslaughter. He’s retreated and is under pressure to retreat further, creating new problems. One of the toughest decisions facing the British Prime Minister is whether to release two prisoners convicted of manslaughter after killing a policeman in a particularly brutal way. They were in a car that dragged the policeman behind them when he was caught in a rope. The driver was convicted of murder, meaning the jury judged that he intended to kill the policeman. The other two, both teenagers, were convicted of manslaughter not murder because the jury judged that they did not intend to kill the policeman. The Prime Minister’s problem arises from the need to stop prisons becoming full, which would effectively bring the faltering…