Operation Early Dawn Reactivated
Operation Early Dawn was activated this morning as a part of a response to deal with prison overcrowding and a spate of arrests in the wake of riots across England.
In practical terms, this effectively translates into a one-in-one-out policy for prisoners. Any defendant will now only be summoned to a Magistrates’ Court when it is confirmed that there is space for them to be remanded in custody, should the judge decide that is appropriate. In the meantime, they will be held in cells located inside police stations.
In their statement the Ministry of Justice said:
“...in recent weeks, prisons in the north of England have seen hundreds of people enter the prison estate, after the government took decisive action to tackle violent thuggery on our streets.”
“This has exacerbated longstanding capacity issues in our prisons, which have been operating at critical levels for the last several years, often with under one per cent capacity.”
Unsurprisingly, right-wing commentators have been quick to spread misinformation about this move and the reasons behind it.
Some argue that this is a failure of the new Labour government but failed to remember that this is a reactivation of Operation Early Dawn.
It was originally launched in May this year by the previous, Conservative government after prisons surpassed their maximum capacity.
In truth, this is also probably not the last time that Operation Early Dawn will have to be used despite the delays that it causes within the criminal justice system.
As I have written about on previous occasions, the prison system is at breaking point because of years of neglect and underfunding by the previous administration. It cannot be emphasised enough just how much of a mess this Labour government has been left with to sort out.
Other comments on Twitter and the right-wing press suggests that there is a political aspect to this move by the Ministry of Justice.
It is argued that Labour ministers are so keen to lock up political opponents that they are releasing murderers in order to lock up people who are exercising the right of free speech by posting things on social media.
This viewpoint totally misunderstands the way the Operation Early Dawn works. Instead of releasing prisoners early, the emergency measure ensures that all offenders do serve their full custodial sentence if they have been adjudged to pose a threat to the community.
This can include people who post racist threats and incitements to violence on social media but it also importantly ensures that those who did engage in rioting and attacked emergency services are locked away, as they should be.
It is true that Labour are looking to release a number of prisoners as a way to free-up space in prisons but that is not due to come into force until either September or October.
Furthermore, that will not result in murderers wandering the streets as some would like to suggest. Instead, it will be aimed at certain custodial sentences and there will be an array of safeguards in place so that offenders are carefully managed within the community ahead of their release date.
Like any emergency system, Operation Early Dawn is not how things should function on a regular basis. Instead, it is an immediate response to a crisis that has been brought on by recent riots.
However it should not be forgotten that this set of circumstances has been massively exacerbated the failure of the Conservatives to maintain a functional criminal justice system.
This week on the podcast, a counter-terrorism case raises important human rights issues and we also discuss the importance of common law rights in the English and Welsh legal system.
Episode link: https://uklawweekly.com/2024-uksc-26/
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