My ex-husband almost killed me, but the loophole means he will be released early

Her comments come ahead of Tuesday’s early release of 1,100 offenders, including drug dealers, fraudsters and burglars, serving prison terms of more than five years under the plan to release prisoners for 40 percent of their prison term instead of halfway through .

It follows the release in September of 1,750 prisoners serving sentences of under five years in a bid to prevent prisons from running out of space due to overcrowding. The number of available places in men’s prisons fell to just 86 after the August bank holiday.

Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, will also confirm the launch of a six-month sentencing review, led by former Tory justice minister David Gauke, to consider replacing some short sentences with tougher community sentences, a broader use of Texas-style tagging and tense. prison sentences for good behavior.

Under the early release scheme launched last month, anyone convicted of terrorist, sexual and violent crimes for four years will be excluded from the scheme. Specific domestic violence offences, such as coercive control, stalking and breaching orders, are also exempt, but not assaults on an ex-partner.

Mrs Hudson was told that Underwood, her ex-husband, would be released in early June next year on the 40 per cent reduction in his abuse, but that he could be released on an electronic tag in December under the Government Home Detention Curfew Scheme. This allows prisoners to be released up to six months before their expected release date.

She said victims were being retraumatized by “forcing us to face the terrifying reality that our abusers will be back in our lives much sooner than expected.”

Her ex-husband punched her repeatedly in the stomach, hit her in the face with a phone, cut her arm with a knife and told her, “I’m going to kill you, and then kill myself.” He also said he would turn the couple’s young children into “orphans.”

Victims ‘in danger’

“This policy not only puts victims at physical risk. It undermines our healing. Over the past month I have felt an overwhelming resurgence of anxiety and my PTSD symptoms, which I have worked so hard to manage,” said Ms Hudson.

“My fragile sense of stability has been ripped away and the future I started to rebuild feels as uncertain as ever.”

She said that as Labor has made tackling violence against women and girls a policy priority, the Government must urgently review the early release scheme and “categorically” rule out all violent domestic abuse.

“We cannot allow policies intended to relieve pressure on prisons to shift that pressure to victims. We cannot allow perpetrators of domestic violence to benefit from leniency due to the state’s mismanagement of criminal justice,” she said.

“It is vital that the Government sends a clear message to perpetrators and victims that domestic violence will be treated with the seriousness it deserves. This is not just about a few months being shaved off a prison sentence.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The new government has inherited a prison system that is on the verge of collapse. The country has been forced to introduce a parole program to stem a crisis that would have overwhelmed the criminal justice system, meaning we would no longer be able to lock up dangerous criminals and protect the public.

“The Lord Chancellor announced in July that she would scrap the previous government’s early release scheme and replace it with a system that excludes several domestic abuse-related offences.”

Victims of domestic violence feel ‘paralysed’ by the parole plan

By Elizabeth Hudson

On Tuesday, as the next group of prisoners leave the country under the government’s early release scheme, ministers will no doubt reassure the public that security measures are in place and that dangerous offenders, particularly domestic abusers, will remain behind bars . But the truth is much darker: Domestic violence is being released early, and victims like me are paying the price.

In 2021, my ex-husband attacked me so violently that I am convinced I would not be here today if, by some miracle, I had not managed to escape. He punched me in the stomach, hit me on the head, hit me with my cell phone and cut my arm with a kitchen knife – all while threatening to kill me, commit suicide and leave our children orphaned.

While out on bail, he attacked his new partner, attempting to suffocate her with a plastic bag. These brutal attacks were eventually combined under one charge, and in February 2023 he was sentenced to six years and three months in prison.

Regardless, these are serious crimes of domestic violence that deserve significant punishment. But now, less than twenty months after his conviction, I have learned that his release date has been moved from September 2025 to June 2025, and that could be as early as December 2024. This means he will have served less than two and a half years. six months behind bars. The government’s early prisoner release plan has taken away what little sense of security I had left, and they expect me to live with the consequences.