Early release policy changes 'don't go far enough'

Restrictions on the type of offenders who could be released early from jail "don't go far enough", according to the family of a murdered toddler.

Maya Chappell was shaken to death by her mother's boyfriend at home in Shotton Colliery, County Durham. Her mother Dana Carr was sentenced to nine years in jail after being found guilty of child cruelty by neglect and allowing Maya's death.

She could be released early under a government scheme to reduce overcrowding in jails, with a recent review excluding only prisoners who committed rape, grooming, and serious child sex offences.

Maya's great-aunt Gemma Chappell said the prospect of seeing Carr released had set the family back.

"We should be allowed to grieve, we should be allowed to have our trauma," she said.

She added Carr had only been in prison about the length of her daughter's life and there had been no rehabilitation because she had not admitted her crime.

Chappell said: "She's made no admission of guilt, she's been to the High Court to ask for the sentence to be reduced [which was denied], this just keeps us in this trauma response."

Maya was shaken to death by Michael Daymond at home in 2022.

He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years after being convicted of murder.

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

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service they were closing some of the prisons down and I know those buildings aren't very good, they're old, they're outdated, they're not safe to have people living in them and people working in them," she said.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

Justice Secretary Alex Norris said there would be a "prison capacity crisis" if the government further restricted those eligible for early release.

The policy is due to begin in October, with thousands of prisoners expected to be eligible to be released part way through their sentences.

Chappell said she believed the government needed to look at releasing offenders who committed low-level crime, instead of those jailed for serious offences.

"I don't believe they're taking a holistic approach and looking at it from the wider area to say 'what else can we do' instead of letting serious offenders out back on our streets - this is going to come to the cost of our public safety and victim safety."

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