Lack of safeguards over prisoners’ early release puts abuse victims at risk, Lammy warned

The new sentencing law has been brought in to deal with a prisons overcrowding crisis that has been decades in the making. Photograph: Jeff Morgan/Alamy View image in fullscreen The new sentencing law has been brought in to deal with a prisons overcrowding crisis that has been decades in the making. Photograph: Jeff Morgan/Alamy Lack of safeguards over prisoners’ early release puts abuse victims at risk, Lammy warned Exclusive: victims commissioner and domestic abuse commissioner call for pause on planned releases A failure to put in place safeguards ahead of a change to the law that will result in offenders being released early will leave abuse victims at risk, ministers have been warned. In a rare coordinated intervention, the victims commissioner and the domestic abuse commissioner have written separately to ministers urging them to immediately pause planned early releases of offenders convicted of crimes against women and girls in England and Wales. It comes as charities warn that a growing number of victims have been thrown into panic, with some installing CCTV for their own protection, after receiving letters informing them that offenders will start being released early under the new Sentencing Act from September. The law, brought in to deal with a prisons crisis that has been decades in the making, is designed to combat prison overcrowding. But the justice secretary, David Lammy, and the prisons minister, James Timpson, have been accused of breaking promises to the commissioners and ministers in other departments that safeguards and support for victims would be in place by the time the release happens. Rape Crisis and other charities said support services risked being overwhelmed with calls as more victims learned of the release dates for offenders in the coming weeks. In the months after Labour came to power, more than 38,000 prisoners were released under emergency measures as prison capacity reached breaking point. But unlike the emergency measures, the sentencing law passed in January with the aim of avoiding another crisis includes no exemptions for prisoners convicted of serious crimes, domestic abuse or terrorism. Jess Phillips, who resigned as the safeguarding minister in May, said she raised multiple fears about risk analysis before the sentencing bill was put before parliament but her concerns were not acted on. “They need to halt all releases related to violence against women and girls until they can prove that proper risk assessments are being done in every case,” she said. “Without the correct victim support systems in place, the state is leaving the responsibility of the prisons crisis in victims’ hands. That cannot be right.” Claire Waxman, the victims commissioner, and Nicole Jacobs, the domestic abuse commissioner, said they had been given “specific reassurances” before the bill was passed that were still not in place. Waxman said: “I was repeatedly told that victims would be properly informed and reassured that measures wo