Addicted to punishment?

Prisoner releases would be a disastrous start for the new government

Thirty-five-year-old Zara Aleena was described by family members as ‘a beloved human, child, niece, cousin, granddaughter’ and ‘friend to all’.

In a court testimony, they recalled that ‘caring for others came so naturally to her. Zara… was pure of heart. She was a joy to all of us, her sparkling eyes and the curly, jet-black hair. Her glorious laughter and her sweet, smiling voice. 

‘She was our love in human form. At the age of 5 she said she was going to be a lawyer. Shrieking with joy when she spotted the birds as a child - she would giggle and make us laugh.’

All that joy and laughter was taken away on June 26, 2022 when Aleena was ambushed while walking home on a quiet street in Ilford, east London. CCTV footage at the murder trial showed her assailant Jordan McSweeney stamping repeatedly on her head before leaving her lifeless body.

Her death was indescribably tragic and completely preventable. McSweeney was known to be an extremely dangerous man, with convictions for 69 separate offences which included burglary, theft, criminal damage and a number of assaults on police officers and the public.

His behaviour was known to be so frightening that a local mother had posted on a Facebook group warning parents to keep their children away from him. He should never have been free – yet just nine days before killing Zara he had been released early from prison for robbery, his 28^th criminal conviction.

Zara Aleena was one of 55 people murdered that year by men who were on probation for other serious offences, having been released early from jail. In February 2023 it was revealed that offenders on probation are committing three homicides or serious sex crimes a week, with nearly 700 murders since 2010 alongside 1,000 rapes or serious sexual assaults. This is an immense failing of the British system which has brought tragedy and horror to many innocents and their families – and it looks set to get worse.

Britain’s prisons are desperately overcrowded and morale among staff at an all-time low, following years of underfunding by the Conservative government and the inability of the state to build new jails against local opposition.

Now the incoming prime minister says that we have too many prisoners, while new prison minister James Timpson believes the British justice system is ‘addicted to punishment,’ stating that only a third of inmates should be in jail.

The justice secretary, meanwhile, is considering ‘lowering the automatic release point for prisoners to less than 50 per cent through their sentence.’ While currently prisoners serve half their sentences, or two-thirds for some sexual, violent or terror-related offences, the government plans to push the automatic release point to 40 per cent of their terms for those serving less than 4 years, benefitting 40,000 inmates - but not necessarily benefitting the rest of us.

This would be a very unwise move. The majority of prisoners are inside for sexual or other violent crimes, and even restricting early releases to those serving under four years would set free some very dangerous individuals, while previous amnesties of this type have led to huge increases in crime.

The idea that Britain ‘is addicted to punishment’ jars with the sentences regularly handed out even for the most horrendous crimes, and the way that incorrigible criminals are allowed to offend again. This is the subject of a Twitter thread which I began six years ago, in order to highlight how the common belief in the punitive state was mistaken. 

As an illustration, and bear in mind that their ‘sentences’ are often twice what they actually served, here are a few cases:

A man who killed his wife in 1981, who was released after a few years and went on to strangle a girlfriend 12 years later, was subsequently freed - and ended up killing a third woman.

There was serial rapist Milton Brown, who was sentenced to 21 years for raping three women – one of whom took her own life – and was released early, only to rape again.

Or Joshua Carney, 28, freed on licence from prison and who just five days later brutally raped a mother and her 14-year-old daughter. He was allowed out despite 47 previous convictions, and now having been convicted of ‘13 charges including rape, attempted rape, actual bodily harm and theft’ he is still eligible for parole in 10 years. Doesn’t sound like a country addicted to punishment.

There was John Harding, who treated a woman ‘like a rag-doll’ when he beat and threatened to kill her after she told him she didn't want a relationship. Despite terrorising his victim, including wrapping a sheet around her neck, and being in breach of a 30-month community order for a number of offences, including assault and threatening to kill another woman, and having other convictions for theft and criminal damage, he received a sentence of 21 months. As a result, in 2023, Harding was free to rape two women. Now convicted of rape, actual bodily harm, false imprisonment, strangulation and threats to kill, his sentence of 15 years means he could be out in 10.

Many people end up dead at the hands of people who repeatedly commit lower level offences and escape serious punishment. This was the case with 17-year-old Jodie Chesney, an innocent who was murdered in Harold Hill, Essex, by a drug dealer who was free despite multiple convictions for supplying cocaine and cannabis, failure to surrender to custody, handling stolen goods and possession of a knife.

Or NHS worker David Gomoh, murdered in 2020 by four men who had selected him at random. One of his killers had been convicted for stabbing someone in a fight only two years earlier but was let loose.

Killer Thomas Cashman, who murdered nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in Liverpool, had 18 previous convictions for 30 offences.

Aspiring lawyer Sven Badzak, just 22, was stabbed to death by a group of six men in Kilburn in 2021. One of his killers had four previous convictions for carrying knives, and another had ‘a conviction for possession of a blade, two offences of threatening with an offensive weapon in a public place and affray, and possession of drugs.’ Despite this, he was free.

Nineteen-year-old Leah Croucher was murdered in 2019, most likely by Neil Maxwell, who was found dead weeks later. Maxwell’s long history of serious offending makes his subsequent freedom incomprehensible: in 2002, he had been jailed for four years ‘after being convicted of three sex offences against a girl under the age of 16 and for failing to notify police of a change of name/address’. In 2009, Maxwell admitted raping a woman and was sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison. ‘A year later, Maxwell pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child and received a six-month sentence, to be served concurrently with the previous sentence.’

Free again, in February 2018 he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman and was sentenced to ‘200 hours of community service after serving time on remand’. A year later he murdered a teenager.

A man was released early from a sentence for torturing a woman in a care home and, despite being in the country illegally, was free to stalk and murder another woman in front of her children.

A man was released early from a sentence for a horrific killing, only to commit a similarly savage murder upon release. Liam Jones ‘inflicted at least 37 injuries on disabled father-of-five Phillip Breach’ after the pair had a minor altercation the day before. 

One 28-year-old man was ‘attacked with weapons including an axe, sledgehammer, dog chain, knife and dumbbell bar’ by four people, one supposedly a friend, who ‘filmed the brutality and posted it online.’ Among his torturers, one had 78 previous convictions and another 34. 

Joshua Victorin was released early from prison after serving a sentence for three sex attacks and other crimes – and within a few days carried out six further sex attacks. He had seven previous convictions for 14 offences dating back to 2014, and ‘while serving a sentence for unlawful wounding and possession of an offensive weapon, he sexually assaulted two prison guards and was jailed for a year, having also sexually assaulted a female police officer’.

Yet he was released half-way through his sentence, only to be recalled after being charged with possession of cannabis and having sex in a park in front of children – and then freed under licence weeks later, allowing him to attack six more women. Again, it doesn’t feel like we’re addicted to punishment.

Similarly Andrew Cooke-Edwards had been sentenced to four and a half years for breaking into a woman’s home and threatening to rape her – released early, he went to rape two women. He was out despite another conviction for threatening to release nude pictures of a woman with special needs - now sentenced to ‘life’, he is eligible for release in less than 10 years.

A man who battered to death two women with ‘extraordinary levels of violence’ was released on licence. Despite breaking the terms and being sent back to jail, he was released a second time three years later and went on to batter to death an elderly woman who lived next door.

A man broke into a woman's house and raped her, leaving her with PTSD. He had previous convictions for harassment, common assault against an ex-girlfriend, battery and most recently for stalking. For the most recent rape he was sentenced to six years so will serve just four.

A man wielded a samurai sword and launched a ‘revenge’ petrol bomb attack on his girlfriend’s family. Despite previous convictions for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and witness intimidation, he was sentenced to just 32 months. Released early, he went on to murder a man and rape two women. 

One victim of crime was left ‘totally unaware of her surroundings, has no motor or pain responses, and will likely die from her injuries’, leaving the judge to lament that: ‘It is difficult to imagine a more serious injury, short of death.’ Despite this, her tormentor was condemned to just four years behind bars.

A man attacked and threatened to kill a woman while holding her hostage in her own home for 21 hours, leaving her with more than 50 injuries. He was able to do this despite 37 previous convictions and will be out in a few years.

Even the most gruesome crimes might not merit a jail sentence at all. One Lancashire man was put in a coma and ended up with life changing injuries after being set upon in a totally unprovoked attack – and the perpetrators all escaped prison.

The judge ruled that they had ‘prospered since the offence, in that they have shown themselves to be useful members of society and have held down jobs’ and there was a ‘realistic prospect of rehabilitation’. This was despite one of the men also being convicted of drug offences. Again, it doesn’t sound like a country ‘addicted to punishment’.

Some serious offences, often by repeat offenders, get short sentences that would qualify them for early release under the new scheme. A man who tried to rape a woman and threatened to stab her in the throat received just over two years. Another man received just 18 months for two unprovoked attacks in an Asda despite 18 previous convictions. A 22-year-old chased strangers with a knife and received 29 months even though he had 32 previous convictions, including two for possession of knives and two more recent convictions for burglary.

Many prisoners have convictions stretching into triple figures. Julie McAllister attacked a man in Newcastle with a knife, almost killing him. She had ‘27 previous convictions, including for violence, possessing a firearm with intent and arson’. Her accomplice, who didn’t wield the knife, had ‘101 previous convictions, mainly for dishonesty, admitted threatening another with a blade and affray’ and didn’t even get jail time.

Even stalking, one of the most terrifying crimes, and with among the worst detection and conviction rates, is treated lightly. One woman was stalked by the same man for 19 years, who breached his lifetime restraining order six times, and turned up at her work and home, and even posed as a prospective parent at her child’s nursery.  Despite this, her tormentor was released upon sentencing, having spent time in custody.

Or take the London Bridge attacker Usman Khan, who killed two people in 2019 and had a history of violence. An assessment ‘by his probation officer shortly before his release concluded that he posed a “very high risk” of serious harm to the public in the community, indicating that a seriously harmful event was imminent and more likely than not to happen.’

But Khan was given an opportunity to change. ‘In 2017, he participated in courses provided by Learning Together, the group being supported by academics from the Institute of Criminology within the University of Cambridge’. He repaid this kindness by murdering two of the people helping him through a prison rehabilitation scheme - and one of the grim ironies of that day was that Khan was only stopped from killing more by the intervention of two men, one of them a South African civil servant and the other yet another murderer on day release, the aptly named Steven Gallant.

Considering how much emphasis is placed on violence against women in political debate, people might be surprised how lightly punished domestic abusers are – many of whom go on to kill their partners.

A man who battered his ex-girlfriend, saying ‘I might as well kill you’ while she was holding their baby, was out despite 20 previous convictions for 29 offences. He had grabbed a knife but the woman and her friend had managed to barricade the door before calling the police.

Another man ‘repeatedly attacked his ex-partner, twice strangling her and even threatened to ‘‘violate her”’. He had six previous convictions for 11 offences including criminal damage and battery, and was already subject to a community order for drug offences when he battered his victim. He received just 28 months.

Or the case of Bolton man Mark Lord, who was jailed for attacking his girlfriend and pushing her ‘with great force’ into the direction of oncoming traffic in a drunken argument. He already had 15 convictions for 26 offences, including assaults on former partners.

A man received just over a year in jail after he ‘repeatedly punched his partner in the face and knocked her to the ground just weeks after she had given birth to their baby… his victim subsequently needed surgery to fit a metal plate into her face to repair the damage to her eye socket.’ This was despite five previous convictions for six offences including one for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, against a previous girlfriend.

An Aberdeen man was jailed for eight years after attacking and threatening to kill a woman, holding her hostage in her own home for 21 hours and leaving her with more than 50 injuries. He was free despite 37 previous convictions, including eight for domestic abuse. 

Another man received only a suspended sentence after battering his partner, leaving her with ‘a broken nose, missing teeth, severe bruising throughout her body and a wound to her leg.’

Domestic violence regularly escalates to murder. Robert Massey walked free from court after attacking his girlfriend Jacqueline Forest – and two weeks later he strangled her, after which he scrawled profanities over her corpse. He had previously turned up at her flat with an iron bar and kicked the door, stole her bank card, poured vodka over her and threatened to light it, but had only received a prevention order.

Damien Bendall killed Terri Harris and her two children with a claw hammer at their home in Derbyshire in 2021. Just weeks earlier he had been given a suspended sentence for arson, and an inquest heard that Bendall had previously said he would kill Harris and her children if their relationship ‘went bad’.

Domestic violence is perhaps the hardest form of victimisation for the state to deal with – the lower a country’s homicide rate, the higher the proportion of female victims, ranging from around 60% in Japan to less than 10% in many Central American countries. It is often very difficult to intervene in toxic relationships, but one action the state can do is to incapacitate the abuser, overwhelmingly the man.

And this is the central argument for prison. Jail has four basic functions: deterrent, punishment, rehabilitation and incapacitation, and it is the fourth which is the most effective and reliable. So long as criminals are inside, they are not committing crime outside: that is why there is overwhelming evidence that prison does in fact reduce offending and previous attempts at releasing large numbers of prisoners – such as in Italy in 2006 – have led to crime waves. 

It is certainly true that in many cases these offenders would more appropriately be kept in a secure mental hospital, and the number of beds available for psychiatric patients has declined sharply in the past three decades, and is relatively much smaller than a century ago (although the effect of mental health cuts is more pronounced in the United States, where the asylums were emptied in the 1960s and American cities entered their Gotham era).

Another incident of domestic abuse involved a man receiving just three years after using his partner ‘as a punchbag’ and raining ‘blow after blow on her face in her own home’ in what was described as a ‘horror movie’. He had 13 previous convictions for 28 offences, including theft, criminal damage, ABH and harassment, yet he also had PTSD from his time in the Army. Perhaps he should be in a hospital and deserves some compassion - but he is obviously too dangerous to be inflicted on the public.

In another example of state failure, a paranoid schizophrenic with convictions for robbery, possession of a knife, imitation firearm and class A drugs, and for attacking a six-month-old baby, had been arrested at least 21 times and was ‘well-known’ to mental health services, then released from prison having previously broken the conditions of his early release. He had a history of refusing to take his medication, and was hearing voices telling him to kill and stab people. Five months later he went on a stabbing spree, killing 27-year-old Jacob Billington

Just recently a man who wielded a knife threatening shoppers in a kosher supermarket in north London was given a suspended sentence. He lives in the neighbourhood, so that the people who witnessed this terrifying scene will most likely see him at liberty, even though he is a paranoid schizophrenic and should clearly be in a secure mental hospital.

Similarly with an innocent member of the public stabbed to death in Oxford Street by a man who ‘had previous convictions for criminal damage, assaulting a police constable and emergency worker, and was on bail at the time of the killing.’ Days before the killing he had been seen ‘brandishing a saw’ in Swansea but was freed on bail.

These individuals are better placed in secure mental asylums than prisons; they don’t necessarily deserve ‘punishment’: but the most important thing is that they should not be free.

Damian Bendell’s murder of three people was afterwards blamed on the probation service, but realistically how much can this agency do to prevent murders? Dominic Lawson has criticised the cynicism at the heart of the system, noting that ‘The parole board likes to point out that in 2020-21 only 0.5 per cent of those it released “went on to commit a serious crime”. That is highly disingenuous, if not dishonest. It knows only of cases in which charges have been brought. At present just 7 per cent of offences result in charges. Detection rates are lamentably low. And what counts as “serious”? Not burglary, unless carried out while the homeowners are present. If your home has been ransacked by someone on parole, even if you haven’t been tied up or bludgeoned in the process, you may not be impressed that the parole board has found a way of exempting your experience from its statistical self-vindication.’

In contrast 0% of those incapacitated by prison commit serious crime against the public, and yet that general public is powerless, whoever is in government, to prevent even the most outrageous releases. As Louise Perry wrote earlier this year,  ‘The Parole Board’s persistent efforts to release Colin Pitchfork, for instance, the double child-murderer and rapist, have received some recent news coverage. Undeterred by the statistics showing that almost one in five murders are committed by someone on parole, the authorities seem determined to give 63-year-old Pitchfork the benefit of the doubt. The victims’ families don’t want him released, the tabloids don’t want him released, and polling suggests that the public don’t want him released either: almost 60 years on from its abolition, 55 per cent of UK respondents still tell YouGov that they would support the reintroduction of the death penalty for child murderers.’ 

Indeed, one reason for the very attraction of prison alternatives in the community is precisely because it is so unpopular with the public, whose desire for ‘punishment’ is seen as retrograde and atavistic.

It is true that public perception of crime is often wrong; contrary to what many believe, things have got much better since the 1990s – but then the 1990s were terrible, and followed four decades of escalating violence. When it comes to very serious crimes like homicide, Britain is a safe country, in large part because we are a surveillance society. What we do suffer from are the daily occurrences of quality-of-life sapping crimes like burglary, shoplifting and assault, and yet serious and horrific atrocities do happen with unnecessary frequency, and are often easily avoidable.

The idea that we are addicted to punishment ignores the fact that many people only go to jail after committing multiple crimes, with two dozen assault convictions or 40 thefts to their name. Over 10,000 super-prolific offenders, with more than 50 previous offences each, have been spared jail in the past three years – and in reality these wrongdoers will have committed far more crimes than they were convicted of. Most will continue to offend if allowed to do so, and many will escalate to worse crimes, causing huge amounts of misery.

Crime has an immense cost on society, and the benefits of investing in a new generation of prisons and hospitals to keep repeat offenders inside would be immense. The alternative, the cheaper, feel-good option that wins plaudits from activists and campaigns, only offers more tragedy to those unlucky enough to find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong man.