// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Call with No 10 gives us hope, PC Harper's mother says
The mother of PC Andrew Harper says a phone call from Downing Street to discuss the early release scheme that could see two of her son's killers freed halfway through their sentences has given her hope.
After speaking to a senior No 10 official, Debbie Adlam said she had been told the prime minister wanted to do "everything he can" to find a resolution to prevent the release of Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers this January.
Adlam told BBC Breakfast: "For me, it's hope, but I can't afford to be too hopeful."
She added she was not looking for a "special case" for her son, but wanted the killers of all emergency workers to be exempt from the early release scheme.
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Cole and Bowers were sentenced to 13 years for manslaughter in 2020. Under changes to the Sentencing Act made this year, they will become eligible for release from custody next January.
They are in a category of prisoners - those who have committed certain serious violent or sexual crimes - who until now would have had to serve at least two-thirds of their sentence in jail before being considered for release.
Downing Street had earlier warned it would not be possible to exclude "one or two offenders" convicted of manslaughter from the early release scheme.
However, the BBC has been told that Burnham has now instructed his justice secretary to find a way to exclude Cole and Bowers from the scheme designed to ease prison overcrowding.