Editorial: PC Andrew Harper's family should not have had to campaign to keep his killers in jail

​News that the killers of PC Andrew Harper will remain behind bars is welcome, but his family – and the families of other victims – should never have had to go through the ordeal they have in recent months.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced that the young policeman’s killers will remain behind bars – as he confirmed a controversial early release scheme for prisoners in England and Wales would be changed.

PC Harper was just 28 when he was killed responding to a quad bike theft in August 2019. He got caught in a strap attached to the back of a car and dragged down a country road as three teenage suspects fled the scene of the burglary in Berkshire.

The driver, Henry Long, received a 16-year sentence and would not have be eligible for release under the government’s plans – brought in to free up jail spaces. However, his accomplices Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers would have been.

Andrew’s mother, Debbie Adlam, has spent the summer campaigning to get the government to change its mind and scrap its plans. No mother should have to suffer the loss of a son in such horrific circumstances, less still have to go through the torment of having to campaign to keep his killers where they belong.

However, the family’s campaigning has now secured a commitment from the Prime Minister that the extra prison space will now be created by deporting foreign prisoners and releasing some inmates serving indefinite sentences.

Undoubtedly, this decision will cause problems elsewhere.

The fundamental problem is that decades of underinvestment in prison estate has undermined the ability of the justice system to keep dangerous people behind bars where they belong. Addressing this must be a government priority.