Prime Minister Andy Burnham is exploring options to prevent the early release of Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, who were convicted of manslaughter in the death of PC Andrew Harper. The two men are currently eligible for release halfway through their 13-year sentences under a new government scheme aimed at easing prison overcrowding in England and Wales.

PC Harper, 28, died in 2019 after being dragged by a car for more than a mile while responding to a quad bike theft in Berkshire. Harper’s killers, Cole and Bowers, along with driver Henry Long, fled the scene following the incident. The officer had been married just weeks before his death. Both Cole and Bowers were sentenced to 13 years for manslaughter, and under the early release scheme—introduced by the government and set to begin in October 2026—they could be freed after serving half their sentences, rather than the previous two-thirds requirement, provided they comply with prison regulations.

Burnham has already excluded certain categories of offenders from the scheme, including those convicted of rape, serious child sex offenses, and grooming gang offenses. However, manslaughter is not currently exempt, which has prompted backlash. Harper’s family, along with Thames Valley Police, have expressed strong opposition to the possibility of early release. Harper’s widow, Lissie Harper, described it as a “secondary gut punch” from the government, while his mother, Debbie Adlam, said the decision made emergency service workers feel “completely unvalued.” A petition seeking to block the release of Cole and Bowers has attracted over 759,000 signatures. Thames Valley Police Chief Constable Jason Hogg indicated the force was considering legal action to prevent their release.

The early release plan is part of broader efforts to address prison capacity, which currently stands at 97 percent with approximately 86,000 inmates. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has warned that the system could become overwhelmed by November. Burnham has attributed this situation partly to previous Conservative governments’ failure to expand prison capacity sufficiently between 2010 and 2024, noting the closure of 23 prisons and minimal new spaces created.

Although officials are studying options to exclude manslaughter convictions from the scheme, they have cautioned that doing so would require exempting the entire group of roughly 950 manslaughter prisoners eligible for early release. This would also impact some child sex offenders who were charged under pre-2003 legislation before grooming laws were introduced, complicating targeted exemptions. The MoJ maintains that expanding the list of exclusions beyond the current categories would risk the prison system collapsing, which they warn could result in unchecked criminality and impact police operational capacity.

Some experts, including former detective superintendent Stuart Blaik who led the investigation into Harper’s death, argue that distinctions between manslaughter cases could allow for selective exemptions based on culpability ratings. Blaik suggested using the legal categorization of manslaughter cases—graded by levels of blame—to exclude only the most serious offenders from early release. However, initial advice indicates these categorizations are not always consistently recorded in sentencing, posing practical challenges.

The government has emphasized that under Harper’s Law, anyone convicted of killing an emergency worker during the commission of a crime now faces mandatory life sentences. Additionally, there is a presumption of a whole-life order for murder convictions involving police, prison, or probation officers. Nonetheless, the current measures stop short of preventing the early release of those convicted of manslaughter in cases like Harper’s, prompting ongoing debate over balancing justice for victims’ families with the operational realities of the prison system.