The offer to increase the amount of 'severance pay' is valid for a limited time: to receive 1,500 pounds, the prisoner must apply no later than December 7 and leave the UK before the New Year.
The reason for these measures was the so-called prison crisis. British prisons lack available spaces, and the government is trying by all means to reduce the burden on correctional facilities. In particular, Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised to free up 4,000 prison places by the New Year through the deportation of foreign prisoners. The increase in the 'severance' amount is an attempt by the government to meet the deadline.
The authorities' actions were immediately sharply criticized. Representatives of the Conservative Party called the payments 'bribes' to prisoners and accused Gordon Brown of being unable to solve the prison problem as a whole. In addition, it is argued that such large allowances for foreign prisoners, most of whom are drug couriers from poor Caribbean countries, could 'send the wrong signal,' that is, provoke foreigners to fabricate charges against themselves.
British prisons hold about 10,000 foreigners. From April 2006 to March 2007, 2,784 people were deported under the program.