Prime Minister Andy Burnham has changed the early release rules to keep people convicted of unlawful killing, including manslaughter, behind bars, meaning two of PC Andrew Harper’s killers will no longer qualify for early release.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has confirmed that the killers of PC Andrew Harper will remain behind bars, reversing course on an early release scheme that had sparked national outrage.
The 28-year-old officer was fatally dragged by a vehicle in 2019 while responding to a burglary. Two of the men convicted of his manslaughter, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, were on track to be released early under new rules designed to ease a severe capacity crisis.
The prospect of their release left PC Harper’s family in what his mother, Debbie Adlam, described as “turmoil,” calling the handling of the situation a “hash.” His widow, Lissie Harper, had previously labeled the potential early release as “deplorable.”
“I heard obviously what Andrew Harper’s family were saying. I mean, who couldn’t?” Burnham told reporters. “Nobody would want a position to arise where those guilty of killing a police officer are let out early from prison.”
Under the new directive, anyone convicted of unlawful killing, including all forms of manslaughter, will be excluded from the early release scheme.
But keeping hundreds of additional prisoners locked up requires finding physical space in a system that is currently operating at 97.6% capacity.
To make room, the government is making a controversial trade-off. Burnham announced plans to end Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences. Introduced between 2005 and 2012, these indeterminate sentences have left thousands of inmates confined long after their minimum terms expired, simply because the Parole Board deemed them a continued risk.
“I was faced with a situation where people on those sentences who have more than served their time, not being released when others who’ve committed very serious crimes are being released early,” Burnham explained.
He argued the public would prefer a system where those who have fully served their time are considered for release before those who have not.
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The government also plans to accelerate the deportation of foreign prisoners and adapt existing prison spaces to create more cells. However, none of these measures are expected to create significant new capacity by the time the first batch of prisoners was originally scheduled for release in October.
The decision has been made. The killers will stay in their cells.
Yet, the fundamental tension remains. The government is now balancing the immediate, righteous demand for justice for one family against the slow, grinding reality of a prison system that is quite literally running out of room.
Promise Idoko is Junior Reporter working with moderncrux He covers global politics and international affairs. Based in Nigeria,
