A gang member freed from prison under Labour’s early release scheme has mocked Sir Keir Starmer in a rap song released on Christmas Day.
Drill rapper Isaac Donkoh, also known as Young Dizz, was let out of prison in October having been jailed in April 2019 for kidnapping and torturing a 16-year-old boy.
The release date was two weeks before his scheduled release date of November 4, around 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 titled Plugged In, the rapper said: “Now that I’m back, I’m raising the crime rate. Keir Starmer let me out now he wants me back, got me scratching my head like make up your mind, mate.”
Donkoh was scheduled for automatic release in November, having served more than half of his sentence for kidnapping and false imprisonment. But, he was still serving consecutive sentences for GBH, three years, and perverting the course of justice, six months. Because it fell under a four-year minimum conviction, Donkoh was eligible for Labour’s early release scheme and was released two weeks early.
After coming to power, Labour announced plans to free thousands of prisoners early to “avert disaster” in the prison system amid widespread overcrowding.
Under the early release scheme, thousands of criminals were freed after serving 40 per cent of their sentence, instead of being automatically released at the halfway point of their prison term.
Prisons minister James Timpson said Britain faced the “total breakdown of law and order” without the scheme, with the system “teetering on the edge of disaster” after being “run at 99 per cent capacity for months”.
The early release scheme drew criticism as images emerged of inmates being welcomed with champagne by friends at prison gates after being released, with one declaring “big up Keir Starmer”.
Sir Keir was criticised for Donkoh’s release, with his trial having heard how he met his schoolboy kidnapping victim with four passengers in his car before taking him to one of the gang members’ houses with plastic bags tied over his head.
The victim was threatened with a machete and ordered to strip naked at the house in the attack, which was filmed on Snapchat. Deputy chief inspector Jim McKee, who led the investigation, said the streets of Newham were “a great deal” safer with Donkoh in prison, pointing to “a direct correlation between his drill videos which glorified violence and shootings and stabbings on the streets”.
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice said: “Starmer doesn’t care about law and order and he has no plan to solve this issue besides releasing thousands more criminals back on to our streets since he came to power.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The new Government inherited prisons on the point of collapse with no choice but to introduce an emergency early release scheme.
“To keep the public safe, we excluded serious violent and sexual offenders as well as a series of offences linked domestic abuse. Offenders left prison under strict licence conditions, subject to recall if they are broken.
“We must now ensure no Government inherits a situation like this. That means building new prisons and conducting a sentencing review to ensure we never run out of space again.”
