Jess Phillips is saying the quiet part out loud on the ‘prison capacity crisis’

Former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has landed in hot water regarding her support for Labour’s Sentencing Bill. The 2026 legislation is currently in the news because a clause allowing the earlier release of prisoners will come into effect in September.

The new clause would allow the release of some prisoners after the completion of half of their sentence. This is a marked contrast to the previous requirement of three-quarters fulfillment. However, the legislation has drawn criticism because it could see sexual offenders being released earlier.

Jess Phillips: hypocrisy on full display

Phillips resigned her safeguarding post on 12 May 2026, among calls for Starmer to step down. Four survivors of group-based child sexual exploitation had previously called for her to quit as a condition for their taking part in the National Grooming Gangs Inquiry.

In June, Phillips then urged the government to exclude child rapists from the early release scheme. However, her own previous actions undermined her position. When the Tories tabled an amendment to exclude sexual offenders back in October 2025, Phillips actually voted against it.

On 15 July 2026, the former safeguarding minister appeared on Channel 4 News to explain her seemingly-shifting position. Asked whether she was aware that sexual offenders would be released early when she voted for the bill, Phillips said:

Absolutely, some of these people would get out, so that is why I sought to have risk assessments put in place and fought back against the idea of just instant release.

However, her interviewer was quick to call out the minister’s hypocrisy, asking:

You say you fought back, but in October 2025 Conservatives laid an amendment which would exclude rapists, pedophiles and groomers. You voted against it – why?

And Phillips’ answer? Well:

Because there is a prisons crisis.

Fantastic – so they really are just saying the quiet part out loud now.

‘Capacity crisis’

Phillips’ position here mirrors that voiced repeatedly by floundering justice minister David Lammy. On 12 July, he told the Guardian that Labour needed to press on with the early release scheme as written, to avoid a capacity crisis in prisons:

We would get back to a situation where we were running, at 99, nearly 100% [capacity]. I was with a father whose daughter had been horribly groomed in my constituency just a few weeks ago. It is hugely important that when the perpetrators of this crime are arrested, they can be sent to prison.

We are building prisons, but it takes time – seven years – and in the meantime, we have got to ensure that there is good community punishment.

Both Phillips and Lammy have exposed, inadvertently, a lie at the heart of the carceral justice system. In the UK and around the world we imprison people, not according to some innate righteousness, but according to budget and public appetite.

If the state will suddenly say that prisons are too full and thousands of prisoners will be released early, what mandate did they have to hold them in the first place?

If jail time was about rehabilitation or public safety, what makes a prisoner more safe after half their term than, say, a quarter? Likewise, if prison sentences were motivated by the the innate justice of incarceration, is it not a moral violation to release prisoners earlier?

The theatre of justice

These contradictions can’t be resolved if we think about prisons as being about justice. However, they resolve themselves quite easily if we instead think of the prison system as being about a form of public display – one which gives the appearance of fairness, insofar as the budget at public will is available.

This becomes all the more obvious when we look at the ‘offenders’ whom Jess Phillips and Labour so desperately wants to make room for in our prisons. On social media, Saul Stanniforth commented on Phillips’ Channel 4 appearance, stating:

Got to free the rapists to make room for people who oppose genocide, I guess.

Here, Stanniforth alluded to the mass arrests of Palestine Action supporters under terrorism laws, following the group’s proscription. Many of the arrestees were pensioners who silently held placards stating “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”.

It’s difficult to imagine a world in which a rapist is less dangerous to the public than an octogenarian holding a sign. Fortunately, we don’t have to imagine such a thing. Instead, we simply have to acknowledge that prisons are about the theatre of justice, not justice itself.

Fortunately, alternatives to the carceral system exist – if you’d like to read more, follow the link here.

Featured image via the Canary