On Monday, Downing Street said the prime minister had \u201cpushed hard on what more we could do\u201d but it was not possible to exempt \u201cone or two offenders\u201d from early release, as manslaughter of an emergency worker was not a stand-alone offence. Instead, if they wanted to block the release of Cole and Bowers then every offender with a manslaughter conviction would be affected.<\/p>\n
The government plans to release 5,000 prisoners early over a period of 10 months from October to free up places. Harper\u2019s killers are due to be released in January.<\/p>\n
Burnham is facing demands to exclude Cole and Bowers from the early release scheme. A petition demanding an intervention has nearly 900,000 signatures.<\/p>\n
The prime minister said last week he had \u201cpushed to the very limits of what is possible to do\u201d by exempting 1,000 rapists, child sexual abuse offenders and groomers from early release, which reduced the number of spaces to be freed up in the next 10 months from 6,000.<\/p>\n
Blocking the early release of Cole and Bowers could mean delaying the release of at least 500 other offenders also convicted of manslaughter, a Whitehall source said. \u201cPeople in the Prison Service are terrified by the prospect of another exemption,\u201d they said. \u201cThey have told the PM that if they carve out manslaughter cases there will have to another early release scheme before the general election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ministers have been advised that they are at risk of a legal challenge if they try to carve out exclusions for Cole and Bowers but not others convicted of manslaughter. Nick Hardwick, who was the chief inspector of prisons for six years until 2016, said he felt \u201cuneasy\u201d at the suggestion the government could draw up exemptions from the scheme to satisfy a public outcry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am appalled by what happened to PC Harper,\u201d he said. \u201cLike everyone, I feel sympathetic with those saying that the government should keep these two men in prison. But we have to be careful about the principle here. We should be uneasy about politicians deciding what happens to particular offenders. It is something that needs careful debate. It should not be up to politicians to choose how long individuals spend in prison.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the government did change the legal framework to exclude these two men from early release, it could well be an example of \u2018hard cases making bad law\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
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