Foreigner inmates could serve shorter sentences than British prisoners under a scheme to ease the crisis of overcrowded prisons, it has been claimed.
Non-UK citizens will reportedly be eligible for removal from prisons in the UK and deportation to their home countries up to a year and a half earlier than a British prisoner on the same sentence would be.
The changes, reported by The Daily Telegraph, would mean that if a British man and a Polish man are both sentenced for the same crime, the Polish man could be released and sent back to Poland up to 18 months earlier than the British man.
He would not then have to serve prison time in Poland, but would be banned from coming back to the UK.
The apparent plans have been criticised by a leading committee in the House of Lords and one of Britain’s top judges who said they risk “reducing the deterrents” for foreign criminals to offend in the UK. .
Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the former Lord Chief Justice and a member of the committee, told The Telegraph: “The policy could be seen as reducing the punishment of overseas criminals in order to ensure that UK citizens can continue to be sent to prison.
“In addition, the policy risks reducing the deterrents for overseas citizens to commit crime, potentially undermining confidence in the criminal justice system.”
The committee also criticised the government’s failure to estimate how many foreign nationals would be released early and how many prison spaces would be freed up.
Prisoners were previously eligible for early release for up to a year, and the Ministry of Justice believes extending this to 18 months will affect an additional 300 prisoners.
Among those identified for return is Koci Selamaj, the murderer of schoolteacher Sabina Nessa, who was jailed for a minimum of 36 years
The Independent has repeatedly highlighted the overcrowding crisis facing Britain’s prisons, with inmates crammed into cells for up to 23 hours a day.
In a recent report, this paper revealed that criminals may be freed from jail early or spared prison sentences as the system reaches breaking point.
Justice secretary Alex Chalk also pledged at the Tory conference in October to send criminals overseas in a desperate bid to ease the overcrowding crisis.
But the government’s own assessment of the idea showed it will cost at least £200million and won’t happen until 2026.
Commenting on his deportation plans, Mr Chalk told said: “It’s right that foreign criminals are punished, but it cannot be right that some are sat in prison costing taxpayers £47,000 a year when they could be deported.
“Instead of letting foreign nationals take up space in our prisons at vast expense to the law-abiding public, we will take action to get them out of the country and stop them from ever returning.”
Other plans being considered include sentences under 12-months being carried out in the community instead of prison and an 18-day early release scheme.
