About 650 offenders are being released from jails in England and Wales as part of the second phase of the government's early release scheme. The move aims to address prison overcrowding but faces criticism from victims' groups and probation unions.
By Hermes-Vector AI Desk
About 650 more offenders are leaving jails in England and Wales on Tuesday, marking the second phase of the government's early release scheme designed to tackle the prison population crisis. This wave includes offenders sentenced to up to two and a half years who are leaving after serving a third of their sentence, rather than the usual half.
The second stage follows the release of some 700 offenders on 1 October, all of whom were serving terms of less than 19 months. The current phase begins the process of releasing batches of offenders on increasingly longer sentences, culminating next June with those serving more than 12 years.
Around 5,000 prisoners are scheduled to be released in total, a figure reduced from 6,000 after ministers intervened to exempt rapists and the most serious child sex offenders. Prisoners convicted of manslaughter are also excluded, meaning the killers of PC Andrew Harper, who died in the line of duty in 2019, will not be eligible. Additionally, those jailed for offences including indecent assault by members of child grooming gangs are ineligible.
Victims' groups have raised fears about the scheme. Alice Russell-Harris from the charity Refuge, which supports survivors of domestic abuse, told the BBC that domestic abuse perpetrators are among those being released. She stated this "will put survivors at serious risk of harm," adding that "we know that license conditions are frequently breached."
Veronica Oakeshott from the charity Women's Aid described the scheme as "terrifying for survivors" and "dangerous," citing reports of failures in the electronic tagging system.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, told LBC that he was "worried" about the number of offenders being released into communities. He noted that the Met Police is arresting 2 to 3 early-release offenders a week since the start of August and dealing with over 100 electronic tag breaches a day in London. "I think there's a challenge that the government is wrestling with," Rowley said. "This is a very poor approach to long-term policy, where the national approach to sentencing offenders and the national approach to building prisons have been completely different."
The probation service union, Napo, reports that the releases put enormous strain on its members. Ian Lawrence, Napo's general secretary, told the BBC that probation officers are "absolutely overwhelmed with work," requiring "intensive supervision" for those released. "The sheer weight of numbers causes pressure," Lawrence said.
A report by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) found that almost half of the tags used to track offenders are not fitted on time, with some criminals waiting up to five months. Official data on improvements to electronic tagging will not be released for several months.
Probation officers are preparing to vote in a ballot that could lead to a strike over pay and workload. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has offered a 5% pay rise, while the union demanded 12% to make up for loss of earnings caused by cuts from 2010. The MoJ says the offer is fair and is twinned with a £700m investment in probation to recruit 1,300 extra officers and the roll-out of AI tools to cut the workload of monitoring offenders.
As the second phase of releases begins, the government is bringing its criminal court reform plan back before MPs. The revised plan drops proposals for a new form of Crown Court where a judge alone would reach a verdict against suspects facing up to three years in prison. However, jury trials will still be scrapped for the most complex and long fraud cases, and another 5,500 trials will be kept in the lower magistrates court by ending a defendant's right to ask for a jury trial.
The government has accepted more than 150 of former appeal judge Sir Brian Leveson's 180 recommendations to modernize the criminal courts. This includes expanding the use of "blitz" or "short trial" courts and ordering pilots for defendants to appear direct from police cells. Magistrates will also gain the power to jail offenders for up to two years, up from 12 months, to help clear backlogs.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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