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Gang member released from prison under Work‘s the early release scheme was ridiculed Sir Keir Starmer in a rap song released on Christmas Day.
Drill rapper Isaac Donkoh, also known as Young Dizz, was released from prison in October after being incarcerated in April 2019 for kidnapping and torturing a 16-year-old boy.
The release date was two weeks before the scheduled release date on Nov. 4, about halfway through his 12-and-a-half-year sentence.
And, taking aim at the Prime Minister on the airwaves, in a song released on Christmas Day called ‘Plugged In’, the rapper said: ‘Now that I’m back I’m raising the crime rate. Keir Starmer let me go now he wants me back, he got me scratching my head like make up your mind mate.”
Donkoh was automatically released in November, having served more than half of his sentence for kidnapping and false imprisonment. But he still served consecutive sentences for GBH, three years, and perverting the course of justice, six months. Because he was under a sentence of at least four years, Donkoh was eligible for Labour’s early release scheme and was released two weeks early.
After coming to power, Labor announced plans to release thousands of prisoners early to “prevent disaster” in the prison system amid widespread overcrowding.
Under the early release scheme, thousands of criminals have been released after serving 40 percent of their sentences, rather than being automatically released halfway through their prison terms.
Prisons Secretary James Timpson said Britain faced a “total breakdown of law and order” without the plan, with the system “on the brink of disaster” after “running at 99 per cent capacity for months”.
The early release scheme has sparked criticism as pictures emerged of inmates being greeted with champagne by friends at the prison gates after being released, with one declaring “Big up Keir Starmer”.
Sir Keir was criticized for Donkoh’s release, as the trial heard how he met the victim of his schoolboy kidnapping with four passengers in his car before taking him to the home of one of the gang members with plastic bags tied over his head.
The victim was threatened with a machete and ordered to strip naked inside the home in the attack, which was captured on Snapchat. Deputy Chief Inspector Jim McKee, who led the investigation, said the streets of Newham were “much” safer with Donkoh in prison, pointing to “a direct correlation between his exercise videos glorifying violence and shootings and stabbings on the streets”.
UK deputy reform leader Richard Tice said: “Starmer doesn’t care about law and order and has no plan to fix this issue other than letting thousands of criminals back onto our streets since he came to power.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “The new government has inherited prisons at the point of collapse with no choice but to introduce an emergency early release scheme.
“To keep the public safe, we have excluded serious violent and sex offenders, as well as a range of offenses related to domestic abuse. Offenders left prison under strict license conditions, liable to be revoked if broken.
“We must now ensure that no government inherits this situation. That means building new prisons and implementing a sentencing review to ensure we never run out of space again.”