Maya Chappell’s family say early jail release plan changes ‘don’t go far enough’

Prime Minister Andy Burnham had paused plans for the early release scheme last month, after backlash from survivors and victims families.

On Monday, the government said prisoners who committed rape, grooming, and serious child sex offences were excluded from the early release scheme, which is designed to address overcrowding in prisons.

Burnham said he “wanted to go even further”, but that would not be possible without the prison system collapsing and putting the public “at much greater risk”.

Chappell, who is a former prison officer, said not all victims had been listened to.

“[The review] goes some way into protecting the public and protecting the victims and that’s great because it’s safeguarding them, but it just hasn’t gone far enough – they haven’t listened to other victims with regards to this.”

She added overcrowded prisons were not a new problem.

“When I was in the prison service they were closing some of the prisons down and I know those buildings aren’t very good, they’re old, they’re outdated, they’re not safe to have people living in them and people working in them,” she said.

“I think they need to be looking at buildings properly and seeing what they can do and putting the money possibly back into certain buildings to reopen those areas.”