Thousands of prisoners to be released early to ease overcrowding

Thousands of prisoners will be released early at the start of September, the justice secretary has announced.

Shabana Mahmood warned of the “total collapse” of the prison system and a “total breakdown of law and order” without urgent action to ease prison overcrowding.

She accused Rishi Sunak and the previous Conservative government of a “disgraceful dereliction of duty” for not dealing with the crisis when they were in power.

Under her plan, some prisoners will be released after they have served 40% of their sentence in England and Wales, rather than the current 50%.

Ms Mahmood said she expected the first batch of prisoners released in September to be “in the low thousands”, with further releases over the next 18 months and updates made to Parliament every three months.

Over the next 18 months, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) told BBC Verify it estimated up to 4,000 extra male prisoners and fewer than 1,000 female prisoners will be released under the new measures.

Sentences for serious violent offences of four years or more and sex offences will be automatically excluded from the change, as will the early release of offenders in prison for domestic abuse connected crimes, including stalking and choking.

Speaking at HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire, Ms Mahmood said jails had been operating at 99% capacity since the start of last year and were now weeks away from running out of space.

If that happened overflow police cells would be filled, she warned, leading to “van-loads of dangerous people circling the country with nowhere to go”.

She added: “Soon, the courts would grind to a halt, unable to hold trials.

“With officers unable to act, criminals could do whatever they want, without consequence.

“We could see looters running amok, smashing in windows, robbing shops and setting neighbourhoods alight.

“In short, if we fail to act now, we face the collapse of the criminal justice system. And a total breakdown of law and order.”