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500 FOREIGN CRIMINALS FREED EARLY Daily Mail, December 22, 2007 More than 500 foreign criminals have escaped deportation and won early release from jail over the last six months, according to figures revealed yesterday. A total of 502 foreign prisoners have been allowed out almost three weeks before their official point of release since the end of June, they showed. All are among the criminals who will not be deported from Britain despite Gordon Brown's promise to immigrants: "If you commit a crime you will be deported from our country." Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert said: "These are not petty criminals who are being released. Prison is reserved for serious and persistent offenders. In our view, any foreign national who commits a crime and is imprisoned should expect to be deported. That was what Gordon Brown said too. He did not mean what he said." The disclosure came after a leak that showed immigration bosses have 'no interest' in deporting thousands of foreign offenders. Those who are serving less than a year in jail are not being pursued by the Border and Immigration Agency, and will not be sent back to their country of origin unless they were recommended for deportation at their trial or they have a long record of convictions. The 502 foreign prisoners who were let out of jail early benefited from the End of Custody Licence scheme introduced by former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer in June. They are among between 4,000 and 5,000 foreign criminals given sentences of less than 12 months each year.
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