PRESS RELEASE
PRISON GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION – EARLY RELEASE OF PRISONERS ANNOUNCEMENT
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The Prison Governors Association (PGA) welcomes the decision to release risk assessed prisoners. Anything that reduces the capacity in prisons will help in the fight against Coronavirus, but we do have reservations.
Up to 4,000 prisoners with less than two months to serve and meeting the eligibility criteria will be considered. In reality, following stringent guidelines and risk assessments, the number will be far less.
The decision to tag all early releases seems excessive, when at the normal release date this would not happen. We believe that currently tagging capacity is only around 2,000 and this decision will build in delay when we need to move at pace to make a difference.
We need to create sufficient headroom in our prisons, to reduce cell sharing and develop isolation units to safeguard both staff and prisoners. The PGA questions whether this particular initiative goes far enough.
The aim of reducing the prison population is to manage the spread of the virus, safeguard prisoners and staff and reduce the burden on the NHS of large numbers of prisoners becoming ill and requiring hospitalization. The Government have made brave decisions to stop the spread in society, but the PGA are not sure if this one is brave enough for prisons.
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Note for editors:
The Prison Governors Association was founded in October 1987 to represent the higher operational managers in the Prison Service in England and Wales. The PGA was placed on the register of Trade Unions on 6 November 1987 (No. 639T). On 28 July 1988 the Certification Officer under the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974 issued the Prison Governors Association with a Certificate of Independence. The status of the Prison Governors Association is that of an independent registered Trade Union.
For more information contact James Bryant, PGA Office Manager, on 07884 434814.
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