The other day I heard something remarkable. The victims commissioner said that releasing prisoners based on how we feel emotionally about their victims is not a sensible approach. It gets right to the heart of the issue around prisoner releases and how the focus is not really on how dangerous they are, or their risk of re offending. It is all about emotional manipulation of the public.

Many of them were going to be released at the half way point anyway, until the last govt changed the rules to make them serve two thirds instead. Now the current govt has changed it back to half way again and the public are outraged. The PC Harper case is symbolic, not of how the system works, but how people think it works.

We have no way of knowing if the two men involved have changed or been rehabilitated, because we do not have a risk based release system. Instead we now have proposals to release IPP prisoners and women as an alternative, because they are seen as less controversial. Only they are not.

I have seen so many commentators on the TV saying release all women, because they are all in prison for not paying their TV licence and other such nonsense. What about Rose West and all the others found guilty of horrific child neglect and cruelty? I am sure the newspapers would quickly turn their attention to those victims once they have finished securing a u turn on PC Harpers killers.

As for the IPPs. There is no question they have suffered an injustice, but most that are still in prison are there because they have incurable personality disorders and serious mental health issues that make them potentially far more dangerous than regular prisoners. If protecting the public really is the priority then they will need proper risk assessments first,not just a blanket release scheme. If just one of them re offends, then the newspapers will demand that they are all recalled.

Oh, and we can forget about deporting foreign prisoners, because no country will agree to take them back.

The govt is running scared of the tabloids, u turning again and again on this, to buy time. But eventually they are going to have to face reality.