'My Friday prison release led to a disastrous mistake'

Prisoners vulnerable to addiction, mental health issues or homelessness will no longer be released on Fridays under new plans to cut reoffending. One prisoner who breached parole after being released on a Friday says he felt let down by the system. He told the BBC his story and what it says about prisoners at risk of lapsing back into a life of crime.

"By the time I got to the housing department, it was a Friday afternoon and there was no-one there to see me. I knew the offices wouldn't be open again until the Monday. I was quite fearful of where I was going to stay that night - I didn't want to stay on the streets."

Marc Conway was 17 years old when he was released, on a Friday, after three months in HMP Feltham young offenders' institution in London.

Without anywhere to go, he made what he describes as a "disastrous mistake" and stayed with a "known associate".

In doing so, he broke his licence conditions and was recalled to prison to serve out the remaining three months of his sentence.

"I felt like I had let people down, first and foremost, that I'd been recalled back to prison so soon," he said.

"I was angry, I was resentful of the system. I felt the system had let me down again and I dread to think what I would have done that night if I didn't have somewhere to stay."

Marc has served a number of sentences for a range of serious offences, last leaving prison four-and-a-half years ago.

In 2019, he was one of the people who pinned down the convicted terrorist Usman Khan on London Bridge after Khan had fatally stabbed two people.

Marc Conway was among those who tackled convicted terrorist Usman Khan on London Bridge

Marc now works with the Prison Reform Trust and says that he still sees people having similar experiences to the one he had, two decades on.

"This happens time and time and time again. People are being released on a Friday and are not being able to access services," he said. "It's not just housing. It could be mental health services, it could be GP services, all sorts.

"I have known of people who have committed crime just to have somewhere to sleep that night.

"There's quite an easy solution. You have to go to probation on the day of release. Why can all the services not be under one roof and just stop Friday releases?"

Reoffending risk

Around one in three prisoners are released on a Friday, according to research by the charity Nacro.

They often have just a few hours before services close to meet their probation officer, register with a GP, get housing and sign up for support like Universal Credit.

Nacro has run a long campaign to stop Friday releases, saying they are "setting people up to fail".

Prison governors are expected to be given the power to end the practice for vulnerable prisoners in England and Wales later this year, after the government backed a Private Members' Bill from the Conservative MP Simon Fell.

Under the legislation, governors would be able to release those who have mental health issues, substance misuse problems, or who have a long way to travel home, up to 48 hours early following "strict security checks".

A similar law was passed in Scotland in 2015 but questions have been raised about how widely it has been used.

Simon Fell says vulnerable prisoners face a race against time

Prisons Minister Damian Hinds said leaving custody was a "very sensitive moment" and this was a "simple but, in a wider sense, landmark reform" that would cut reoffending.

"We want to maximise the chance people have when they get out of prison to be able to access those services and that's just harder on a Friday," he said.

"It's quite often a race against the clock, particularly if you've got a long way to travel, so this is just a sensible reform which will mean that you can bring that forward by just one or two days to give that individual more time to do those things."

He said he "absolutely understood" that some victims of crime might have concerns about offenders being released earlier than the end of their sentence.

"The protection of the public must always come first but this is also an aspect of protection of the public. When people do get out of prison, they must be able to have the chance to get on to that better path to be able to put in place those important things which will give that chance," Mr Hinds added.

Ending Friday Releases formed part of the government's Prisons Strategy published in 2021. The Ministry of Justice committed to do it last year.

The Offenders (Day of Release from Detention) Private Members' Bill is expected to pass its final reading in the Commons on Friday before going to the Lords.

Additional reporting and video journalism by Thomas Mason