John Baron

Conservative Party | Billericay and District

Points of View

Get out of jail free

According to some recent newspaper reports, thousands of long-term prisoners could be freed on electronic tags under Government plans to relax further the rules of its early release scheme.

Labour’s Home Detention Curfew Scheme is currently open to prisoners serving less than four years in prison. The Government’s proposals to extend the scheme could mean that offenders serving seven years for drug offences or street robbery could be freed early.

I have grave doubts about this policy. Firstly, since Labour introduced the scheme, over 80,000 prisoners have been released early. Of these, over 1,100 have committed crimes while under curfew – including rape, murder and robbery. This is very wrong and extending the scheme can only make it worse.

Meanwhile, such a policy sends out the wrong signals. Court sentences need to reflect the severity of the crime, and if anything we should be getting tougher with the criminals in order to help reverse the trend of rising crime – particularly violent crime.

There is little doubt that our prisons currently need reforming for they are turning too many young criminals into experienced ones. However, releasing prisoners early who then go on to commit other crimes is not the answer – for we owe a duty of care to the law-abiding majority.

Postal Delays

Local residents will have noticed that there have been some postal delays and services have been disrupted. I have raised this issue with Royal Mail through various meetings with local managers and corresponded with Adam Crozier, Chief Executive of Royal Mail.

During these meetings, Royal Mail has outlined how it intends to correct the situation. Measures include recruiting full time employees instead of temporary labour, returning the operation within the office to the former sorting process the employees are familiar with, and providing additional staff to assist delivery walks that are currently taking an excessive amount of time to complete.

In addition, Paul Williams, Essex General Manager, has expressed his personal apologies on behalf of Royal Mail to all local residents for the disruption to service they have experienced – and pledges that he, his management team and staff are all working hard to restore and improve services in the area.

I have certainly been assured that the above measures will result in an effective and professional service being re-introduced soon, and I will be following progress closely.