Criminals to be released 70 days early to cope with prison overcrowding

Criminals are set to be released up to 70 days early to ease prison overcrowding, the government has confirmed.

Justice minister Edward Argar told the House of Commons today (8 May) that the early release scheme is used “only when absolutely necessary and kept under constant review”. He added: “Only offenders who will soon be released anyway would be considered.”

It comes as chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said “there simply isn’t enough space” despite “frantic” attempts to increase capacity with temporary accommodation and two new jails. “The number of places simply can’t keep pace with the number of people coming in,” he told Times Radio.

“What we’re seeing at the moment is an estate that is creaking at every level under enormous pressure from the sheer churn and numbers of people within the system.” He said prisoners needed support “to begin to be rehabilitated” but “if they are simply left languishing in a cell, exposed to all kinds of drugs, further criminality, then the danger is actually they come out worse than they went in”.

Union sources previously told NationalWorld that there is “literally no space in prisons”, and the Prison Officers’ Association has warned of widespread burnout among staff. Overcrowding in prisons has been getting towards a crisis point over the last 12 months, with reports prisoners are sharing cells and being moved around the country at short notice.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk announced in October that the Government would use the powers it has to allow the Prison Service to let some prisoners out of jail up to 18 days early to ease overcrowding. In March, he extended the so-called end of custody supervised licence scheme “to around 35-60 days”, as Ministry of Justice (MoJ) statistics showed that prisons in England and Wales were still nearing capacity.

Now that will be extended to 70 days from 23 May. Ministers reportedly quietly authorised the latest change without any formal announcement.

During an urgent question to Argar in the Commons, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood accused the government was making the changes “in secret”. She said: “This is the price that the public is paying for a justice system in crisis and a Government in freefall.”

She added: “The government is releasing prisoners, but not the facts. The strategy is clear for all to see, say nothing, try and get away with it and get to the other side of the general election. It’s shameless, and frankly a disgrace.”

Argar replied: “I think (Ms Mahmood) suggesting ‘sneaking it out’, in October and March, which included statements to this House was entirely transparent.” Chalk was previously criticised for making the March announcement via a written ministerial statement to Parliament after 8pm, before attending the Commons in person the following day to update MPs.

The Ministry of Justice insisted that offenders freed early were under strict supervision. A MoJ spokesperson said: “We will always ensure there is enough capacity to keep dangerous offenders behind bars.

“We are carrying out the biggest prison expansion programme in a hundred years, opening up 20,000 modern places, and ramping up work to remove foreign national offenders. To ease the short-term pressures on prisons, in March we announced an increase in the number of days governors could, under existing powers, move some offenders at the end of their prison term on to licence. These offenders will continue to be supervised under strict conditions such as tagging and curfews.”

Additional reporting by PA.

Ralph Blackburn is NationalWorld’s politics editor based in Westminster, where he gets special access to Parliament, MPs and government briefings. If you liked this article you can follow Ralph on X (Twitter) here and sign up to his free weekly newsletter Politics Uncovered, which brings you the latest analysis and gossip from Westminster every Sunday morning.