1,100 prisoners to be freed next week in second round of early releases

Another 1,100 prisoners are due to be released early next week as the Government continues to battle with jail overcrowding.

The prisoners form the second round of early releases under a policy introduced early in the Government’s term to reduce the proportion of a sentence most offenders must serve behind bars from 50% to 40%.

The first round of releases, in mid-September, saw 1,700 inmates set free early and helped the prison population fall from a record of 88,521 to 86,333.

Numbers have since risen again, reaching 87,028 on Friday, just below the levels seen when Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the plans in July.

Ms Mahmood had warned then that prisons risked running out of space, potentially causing the collapse of the justice system as courts would have nowhere to send convicted criminals.

The early release scheme does not apply to some inmates, including those convicted of sexual, domestic abuse or terrorism offences, or violent offenders serving sentences of more than four years.

September saw 37 inmates released in error after their sentences had not been correctly logged. Ms Mahmood confirmed on Thursday that all 37 were back in custody.

Ms Mahmood is expected to launch a review of sentencing during the week, which is likely to consider several reforms including whether tougher community sentences would be more effective than short spells in prison.

This follows her announcement that magistrates’ sentencing powers will be doubled again, allowing them to jail criminals for up to a year.

The move is intended to ease the backlog in the crown courts and reduce the number of remand prisoners waiting to receive sentences, but the Justice Secretary acknowledged this would initially “see a slight increase in the overall prison population”.

But the Criminal Bar Association warned that extending magistrates’ powers was a “short-term and long-term backfire” as it could “sharply increase” the overall prison population within a matter of months.