Grandma calls for end of early jail release scheme
BBCThe grandmother of a man killed by a former inmate who was released under the government's early release programme hours earlier has said the scheme should be stopped.
Joy Dove's grandson Lewis Bell, 26, was stabbed to death in a dispute over drugs in September 2024 in Stockton-on-Tees.
Liam Matthews, who hit Bell with a chisel, had been released from HMP Holme House on 18 September, eight days after the government's early release scheme came into force to help ease pressure on crowded prisons.
Dove, from Stockton, said: "It's awful to think he got released on that early scheme." The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said it was "pulling every lever to fix the broken justice system".
During a trial in March 2025, Teesside Crown Court heard how Bell was "hunted like prey" by Matthews, Sean McLeod and Ashton White in the early hours of 19 September 2024.
McLeod was found guilty of murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years.
Matthews and White, who were found guilty of manslaughter, were jailed for 15 years and sentenced to 10 years in youth detention respectively.
The court heard how, as Bell lay begging for his life, McLeod stabbed him with a knife while Matthews struck him with a chisel and stamped on him.
Family handoutMatthews had previously been jailed for 22 months in June 2024 for violent disorder after being part of a gang which attacked and robbed a man of £500 in Stockton.
Dove said she had written to the current and previous prime ministers asking to meet them to discuss her concerns with the scheme, introduced by the Conservative government.
"I've written to Keir Starmer twice but they said he couldn't meet me, and I wrote to Andy Burnham about seven weeks ago - no reply," she said.
"It's terrible and it should be stopped. There have been so many people whose families have been affected, women frightened their ex-partners are coming out.
"Why don't they just build more prisons?"
The government has said it is building 14,000 new prison spaces.
Bell was one of 12 siblings and was killed on his son's eighth birthday.
His death was the latest tragedy to befall the family after the deaths of his mother and brother.
His disabled mother, Dove's daughter, Jodey Whiting, took her own life in 2017 after her benefits were incorrectly stopped.
Cleveland PoliceIn August, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced changes to the next early release scheme, following outrage that the killers of PC Andrew Harper were among those eligible to be released.
Burnham said they would not be, telling the BBC that anyone convicted of unlawful killing will be excluded from the scheme.
In response to Dove, the MoJ said the government inherited a prison system "at the point of collapse".
"If we failed to act, the police would have been forced to halt arrests, putting communities at untold risk.
"To make sure this never happens again, we are pulling every lever to fix the broken justice system - building 14,000 new prison spaces, with 3,300 already built, boosting victim support funding to record levels, and giving probation the powers they need to put offenders who are released under some of the toughest restrictions to date."
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