Around 650 prisoners are due to be released from jail today in the third wave of Labour’s early release scheme, intensifying the political row over public safety and the Government’s handling of England and Wales’s overcrowded prisons.
The offenders, who are serving sentences of less than three years and two months, will join thousands already freed under the policy, which began on October 1.
Those released in this latest phase include people convicted of affray, burglary and fraud. Some violent offenders convicted of wounding, grievous bodily harm with intent and lower-level firearms offences could also qualify.
The scheme is intended to relieve pressure on a prison system struggling with capacity. Under the policy, most prisoners serving fixed-term sentences can be released after serving one-third of their sentence, rather than the previous halfway point, unless their offence falls within an exemption.
Ministers initially planned to release around 6,000 prisoners in stages over the coming year. That figure has since been reduced to 5,000 following intervention to exclude rapists and the most serious child sex offenders.
The exemptions also cover manslaughter, terrorism and murderers serving life sentences. The decision to exclude manslaughter followed concerns that the killers of PC Andrew Harper could otherwise have been released early.
But the policy continues to attract fierce criticism from opposition politicians, who argue that the public is being forced to bear the consequences of years of failure to expand prison capacity.
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s Home Affairs spokesman, blamed successive Conservative and Labour governments for the crisis.
“Every single prisoner released today is an indictment of successive Tory and Labour ministers,” he said.
He added that ministers had failed to build sufficient prison places and warned that thousands of offenders would be free before completing their sentences.
The prison population of England and Wales stood at 86,982 on Monday, according to Ministry of Justice figures, up from 86,883 the previous week.
The Government has sought to reassure the public that those released will remain subject to strict supervision. Officials have said there is a presumption that prisoners freed early will be fitted with GPS tags by contractor Serco.
The Ministry of Justice has previously promised that the most serious offenders would face the “toughest supervision in British history”.
However, ministers have not published figures showing how many prisoners released under the scheme have subsequently been recalled for breaching licence conditions.
That absence of data leaves a significant question hanging over the policy: whether early release is providing a sustainable solution to the prison crisis or simply shifting the pressure from overcrowded jails onto communities and probation services.
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