Commentator Carole Malone has taken aim at Labour's latest efforts to reduce the prison capacity numbers, after announcing that criminals could serve just a third of their original sentence.
Unveiling the latest Government policy, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood revealed that certain prisoners will be returned to jail for just 28 days when they violate their licence conditions.
Mahmood defended the policy, insisting it would not compromise public safety and that running out of prison places posed a greater risk.
"If our prisons overflow, courts cancel trials, police halt their arrests, crime goes unpunished and we reach a total breakdown of law and order," she said.
Carole Malone hit out at Labour's latest attempt to cut prison capacity numbers
PA / GB News
She added: "I was confronted by that prospect when I took office. I am confronted by it again now. But I will never let it happen."
Discussing the move on GB News, Carole Malone questioned where the "justice is" for the victims of the perpetrators in prison, and blasted the "astonishing" new policy.
Malone fumed: "This is astonishing. So this week it was announced that criminals will only serve a third of their sentence, which is pitiful enough. And then yesterday, we're told that the recall system for people who spit on that and commit crimes as soon as they get out, the recall is only going to be 28 more days in prison.
"We've got Shabana Mahmood presiding over a total breakdown in law and order - where is the justice for people who've been victims of crime?"
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Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has hit out at the 'shameful' capacity crisis in England and Wales' prisons
PAIn a further pointed attack on Britain's current justice system, Malone claimed that there is "too much focus" on the criminals, rather than the victims.
She stated: "Our whole system seems to be focused on the people who commit crime and their needs and their wants, but not on the victims of crime.
"So now if you commit a rape, which you tend to get about three or four years for, you're going to be out in a year. So what is the price of a woman, you know? The conviction rate is incredibly low anyway."
Offering a defence of the Labour Government, commentator Andy Williams claimed that because prison spaces are "already at 98 per cent capacity", there is an "imperative" to let prisoners out early before spaces become full.
Malone told GB News that the policy is 'pitiful'
GB News
Williams explained: "The immediate problem is that our prisons are at 98 per cent capacity. We're going to run out of prison space in November. We nearly ran out of prison space last summer.
"So there is in the short term, there is an imperative, unfortunately, to release some prisoners or to release some prisoners early."
He added: "The point is, they need to be really careful - they said let's not release violent, criminal sexual offenders, and they did, and they absolutely mustn't do that again.
"But they need to look at the people who are in there for softer crimes with short sentences, and releasing those people instead."
