Hardened crooks to serve full prison sentences as Boris Johnson takes tough stance on crime – with 10,000 new prison places announced
CONS will no longer get out of prison early under new tough new plans to be announced by Boris Johnson this week.
The Prime Minister is calling to end the automatic release of serious prisoners as part of a £2.5billion crackdown on violent crime.
Currently, criminals can be freed after serving just half of their sentence.
Johnson is expected to press for a tougher stance on sentencing at a roundtable meeting at No 10 tomorrow, reports the .
He also outlined a plan to create 10,000 new prison places by building new jails and expanding existing sites at a cost of £2.5billion.
The huge sum has been approved by the Treasury with the Prime Minister describing the investment as being "long overdue".
CRACKDOWN
His plan will include a 1,000-place jail alongside an existing category A facility at Full Sutton, East Yorkshire.
Security in courtrooms will also be increased.
And home secretary Priti Patel is to announce more than 8,000 officers will now be able to use enhanced stop-and-search powers in all 43 police forces across England and Wales.
Writing for the Mail on Sunday, Johnson also said he wants knives "taken off our streets".
He writes: "We have done it before, more than ten years ago, when London faced an identical spate of knife crime and violence at the beginning of my first term as Mayor. We can do it again.
It's outrageous that murderers are let out only to murder again
Boris Johnson
"I want to drive down the murder rate and youth violence. With the help of my then Deputy Mayor, Kit Malthouse, we did it before. Kit is now Policing Minister, and we will do it again."
Britain is enduring a deadly knife epidemic - with blade murders reaching unprecedented levels in London with 84 deaths in the capital since the start of 2019.
Last year was London's bloodiest in a decade - when the number of homicides reached 132.
Under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, any criminal who receives a non-life sentence - and is not deemed to be dangerous - can leave prison when just half of their term has been served.
OUTRAGEOUS
For prison sentences of 12 months or more, crooks spend the first half of the sentence in prison and the second half in the community “on licence”.
The new plans would not apply to rapists and murderers as their release is decided by the Parole Board.
In May, Johnson slammed soft justice, saying: "It's outrageous that murderers are let out only to murder again ... I could not believe that ... a convicted rapist was out on early release, only to allegedly commit several more rapes almost immediately.”
News of Johnson's crime crackdown comes after he also pledged to spend £1.8billion on the NHS.
During a visit to a hospital in Lincolnshire earlier this week, the PM also stressed that "last thing" he wants before delivering Brexit is a general election.
Dominic Cumming's attack on justice system
Boris Johnson's special adviser Dominic Cummings has vowed to clamp down on foreign criminals and paedophiles in an attack against the 'f***ing mad' justice system.
Mr Cummings said too many foreign criminals who commit serious crimes in the UK escape deportation.
He said: "The whole thing is absolutely f***ing mad and we're going to change it."
Under the European Convention on Human Rights, foreign criminals can often delay or avoid deportation on spurious grounds.
About 12 per cent of the prison population is thought to be from overseas.
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He said: "The people of the UK voted in the election in 2015, they had a referendum in 2016 and another election in 2017.
"They want us to deliver what they asked for - and that is for us to leave the EU.
"The last thing I want to do is call another election."
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