More inmates released early to stop prisons running out of space

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"We cannot allow" prisons to reach zero capacity, justice secretary says



More than a thousand inmates will be released early to free up spaces in prisons in England and Wales, the justice secretary has announced, as the government grapples with an overcrowding crisis.

Under the move, offenders serving one to four years who are recalled to prison for breaching their licences, will be released after 28 days.

Shabana Mahmood said a £4.7bn investment would fund more prisons, but said it would not be possible to "build our way out of this crisis".

A senior Ministry of Justice (MoJ) official said the government would "run out of prison places in just five months' time" if action was not taken.

Last week, the prisons minister told the BBC there would be no more emergency releases to deal with the overcrowding crisis in prisons.

But Mahmood said the move would free up about 1,400 prison places and buy ministers time to overhaul a system "on the brink of collapse".

The change would not apply to those who commit a serious further offence – or are deemed to pose a high risk, she said.

In usual circumstances, these offenders would go in front of a parole board before being confirmed for release, but the government has decided to skip that part of the process, arguing they would have already been released if it was not for a backlog in parole assessments.

The changes are expected to be introduced in the coming weeks.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said the announcement was "failing to protect the public".

He said "to govern is to choose, and today she's chosen to release early criminals who've reoffended or breached their licences."

The chairman of the Prison Officers Association said building new prisons will "not improve the current population crisis".

"The government would be better off spending billions of taxpayers' money on modernising the prison estate, funding an under-resourced probation service, providing more secure mental health beds and ensuring we have robust community sentences that the public have confidence in," Mark Fairhurst said.

One victim, whose perpetrator was recalled for breaching their restraining order, said the move was "outrageous" and meant some criminals would be given an easy way out without doing their time.

Domestic Abuse Commissioner Dame Nicole Jacobs said the proposal lacked consideration for victims' safety and put lives in danger.

"You are not sent to prison for four years if you do not pose significant risk to your victim or the wider public," she said. "Perpetrators of domestic abuse know everything about their victim – where they live, where they work, where their children go to school – they are also extremely willing to breach orders intended to protect victims, time and time again.

"Re-releasing them back into the community after 28 days is simply unacceptable."