Connor Richings never wanted to leave the confines of HMP Pentonville’s towering 18-foot walls.
With just £12 in his pocket and no possessions beyond the clothes on his body, the 31-year-old reluctantly walked through the North London prison’s large main gate.
As one of thousands of inmates freed across the country as part of the government’s early release scheme, Mr Richings claims many are being set up to fail by a disinterested prison system.
It comes months after it was revealed that around 600 people leave prison into homelessness every month.
“I want to go straight back in,” he tells The Independent, just seconds after walking free.
“I ain’t got nowhere to stay, it’s cold out[side]. They haven’t gave me no clothes, I’ve got no tent, I’ve got no way of surviving,” he says.
Mr Richings does not want to reveal his crime or sentence. But the government’s early-release strategy, which aims to ease the strain on overcrowded prisoners, does not include prisoners convicted of murder, sex crimes, or terrorism acts.
Released on a grey, cold Tuesday morning, Mr Richings says he has been “set up to fail” in his release from prison.
“They let me out with nowhere to stay. They’re leaving me with nowhere to go. I’ve got released with 12-pounds-something…. I just feel like they’re setting us up to fail, basically.”
Mr Richings was the third prisoner to be released from HMP Pentonville on Tuesday – the day a second wave of prisoners with longer sentences were released across England and Wales.
He claims prisoners’ gruelling life circumstances mean there is little enthusiasm about the early release scheme within the prison walls.
“I think half of them were not bothered, because I think [they] are going through the same stuff. Half of us were in there through being homeless, and we’ve been trying to get help. So it’s just like I said, it’s a system failure.”
It was a day of jubilation for some, however.
One joyous family waited for hours outside Pentonville before eagerly embracing their father and partner on release after four years behind bars for drug offences.
Two other men, who also didn’t speak to the media, were seen leaving the prison on Tuesday morning.
“Let them free, let the innocent free,” one woman yells into the prison grounds from across the road.
When approached byThe Independent, the woman, who identified herself only as Willow, says: “If prison is going to be a prison, then why not teach them something, so that when they come out they have some kind of education and they can prolong their future with a good job.
“[The prison system] is just caging animals, that’s how it looks. And then you throw them on the street.”
HMP Pentonville, a category B men’s and young offenders prison, was labelled by former justice secretary Michael Gove as the “most conspicuous” and “most dramatic example of failure within the prison estate” in 2015.
Mr Richings claims inside the conditions are harsh and unhygienic, despite wanting to go back inside. The prison holds people awaiting trial alongside those convicted of serious crimes including drug offences, murder and rape.
He says: “There are cockroaches and rats in there, it’s not very nice at all. You get fed like a kid’s meal, last night I got four potatoes, a little bit of veg and a Yorkshire pudding.
“It’s a bit grim in there to be honest.”
Built in 1842 and virtually unchanged in structure since, the prison holds more than two times as many prisoners as it was originally designed to. Around 1,300 are accommodated to two inmates per cell, according to an inspection report published last year, dwarfing the 520 single-cell capacity once envisaged.
The nationwide prison overcrowding crisis prompted action from the UK government, which sanctioned the early release of 1,700 prisoners on September 10. Just four days earlier on September 6, the prison population of England and Wales hit a record high of 88,521.
But the government’s controversial scheme hasn’t been without its problems.
Last month, 37 prisoners not eligible for the scheme were wrongly released after a system error meant their offences had been logged under outdated legislation.
The release of prisoners comes as the government sets up a major review of prison sentencing to be led by former justice secretary David Gauke, which will consider steps to boost prison capacity.
Possible measures include scrapping short-term prison sentences and improving rehabilitation, the government says.
The Ministry of Justice has been approached for comment.
