A Murderer on Day release skips Jail for a third time, what's going on here?

I am no fan of the way our Prisons are run to begin with, but there has to be a system in place for graduating people who are due to be released having served their time. (How much time people get is another argument and I find myself in Sweet Peas camp when it comes to length of sentence etc).

However, having served their time, then people are released and we need to look at how it is handled.

The USA tend to go for half way houses, prisoners are not given time in open prisons or day release from none open prisons. They leave prison but are compelled to reside in half way houses under pretty strict reporting regimes, and are generally supported by parole officers as they adjust to life outside.

This is not a perfect system by any means but is another method to consider.

However, in the UK, our sentencing and post sentence policies are very much Governed by finance. We see Judges imposing trivial sentences for serious crimes (serious to the victims for sure).

We see Murderers (therefore on license for ever), released or placed in open prison regimes, even though, as was the case with the so called "Skull Cracker" they are considered dangerous.

Given that they are on license and therefore could be held for the rest of their natural life, surely any assessment that regards them as still being a danger to the public, should be enough to prevent them being considered for release?

We need more prisons, and a professional prison service restored, not virtual holiday camps run by the lowest bidder (G4S) who's erstwhile record is hardly one to look up to, or SERCO who like G4S, are already in trouble for ripping off the Government over their tagging systems.

Tougher sentences, stronger work towards rehabilitation, but not all the home comforts unless earned.

That takes a Government willing to invest in the UK and things that matter to the ordinary man and woman. So with Labour and the Cons, nothing will change, just the rhetoric.

Even the press seems to be confused on this. He was on ROTL (day release) from a Category C prison, which is NOT open, so comments on open prisons in this particular case are irrelevant. Particularly the one from the Prison Officers' Association, who I would have thought should know better. Given how difficult ROTL normally is to get, someone in Offender Management or at the Parole Board fouled up big time in making the risk assessment of whether to allow it, especially has he has done this before AND managed to escape from HMP Manchester.

ROTL is given for ostensibly good reasons, like work experience to help rebuild a life outside in due course. Open prisons exist for much the same reason, as it's incredibly hard to readjust to the outside world again after a long sentence. But it's always a risk, and the question has to be asked whether it's ever right to take that risk balanced against what temporary release is there for. On the whole it works - very few, perhaps amazingly, go walkies. Certainly if you do it from an open prison, you won't be back in one for a long long time when you get caught.

The same applies to deciding whether to release a lifer. Unless they have a whole life term, there is the potential for eventual release. The release criterion is whether the prisoner is still a danger to the public. And nobody can ever be 100% sure. Should our response be never to release them? It's a complex issue.

Home Secretaries and now Justice Secretaries always have this on their plate and if there were an easy answer to it, they would have found it by now.

According to Chris Greyling the law will be changed this month. Problem is, they are sent to an Open Prison at the end of their sentences and let loose so they can get used to outside life. Thousands do this with no problem, we only hear about the ones who go walkies.

The HMP I worked in had an Open Prison down the road. Prisoners were bussed into the nearest town for the day and then brought back. A few hopped it, but most came back.

It has always been part of the process.

UK

The do gooders who allow this should be sacked, but you and I know that will never happen. These people should not be on day release when they are known to be a danger to the public. They are on day release and commit another crime. how wonderful!!!. It's time we got back to basics and when a Judge gives a life sentence that's exactly what it should mean, life. Of course the do gooders will scream that this is against their Human Rights, but they give no thought to the victims. S*d their Human Rights is what I say. Take care Mr Grumpy.

Government by misers on behalf of multimillionaires, of course, as always.

Our Masters aren't worried - criminals of this type - as contrasted with Russian oligarchs, bankers. Rupert Murdoch, etc, are not found hanging around their private security perimeters.

Why not just open all the prison gates and they can go in and out as they please?the system is not fit for purpose.