British prison reform will release convicts after serving 40% of term to combat overcrowding: reports

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The United Kingdom’s new Labour government announced that prisoners who have served 40% of their sentence could be released as a way to combat overcrowding in facilities across the country.

"The guilty men in the last government left our prisons on the brink of collapse," British Secretary of State for Justice Shabana Mahmood wrote on social media platform X. "They put their political interests before the country, & left us facing a total breakdown of law and order."

"Today, I set out emergency measures that will grip the prisons crisis," she insisted.

Mahmoud laid out in a press release that "only hundreds of places" remain in adult male prisons and that U.K. prisons have operated at "over 99% capacity since the start of 2023," with space expected to be fully occupied within weeks. 

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To combat the problem, Mahmoud has authorized a change to early release measures, reducing custodial sentences served in prison from 50% to 40% but stressing that the policy would include "important safeguards and exemptions" to keep the public safe. 

HMP Wandsworth prison in London, England. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

The policy will go into effect in September and will include "regular publications of releases under the changes to standard determinate sentences." 

The U.K. will often release criminals for certain types of offenses "on license" – the equivalent of releasing a prisoner on probation – with conditions that include regular contact with a supervising officer, reporting all addresses and movements to the court, receive approval for any jobs and a ban on travel outside of the United Kingdom. 

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The Ministry of Justice in the press release claimed that the new policy would lead to over 10,000 offenders being released early, which would be around 11% of all beds: The New York Times cited a figure of just under 89,000 total population before the U.K. prisons hit their maximum "operational capacity." 

ABC News reported that the total prison population under old policies could hit around 99,000 by the end of next year without changes. Mahmood has warned that overflow would force local police stations to use their prison cells, leading to a ripple effect that she claims would cause collapse of the justice system.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood during a visit to HMP Bedford in Harpur, Bedfordshire, as she announces plans to address prison overcrowding amid fears that jails will run out of space within weeks.  (Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images)

The new policy will not apply to any convicts of sex offenses or domestic abuse-connected crimes, including stalking offenses, controlling or coercive behaviors in an intimate or family relationship, non-fatal strangulation and suffocation and any convicts who have breached restraining orders and abuse protection orders. 

Previous policy has held that anyone given a life sentence and released on license must remain on those parole conditions for the remainder of their lives. 

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Families of victims have already expressed outrage at the plan and raised concerns that if the already-existing prisons can’t handle such a population, then the external supervision structures likewise will be overwhelmed with an influx of new parolees to handle. 

"If the system cannot deal with those people being released into the community, then those people are not going to be supervised adequately,'' Farah Naz, aunt of murder victim Zara Aleena, told BBC Breakfast, citing issues with underfunding in the probation service. 

Ms Mahmood is expected to set emergency measures that could include reducing the time before some prisoners are automatically released. (Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images)

"When people, perpetrators, even thieves are not supervised adequately, crime can escalate. It doesn’t always escalate, but it can," Naz added. 

The murderer of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in 2022 was a man who had been released from prison on license, according to the Independent. 

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Anyone convicted of murder automatically receives a life sentence but for license purposes will have a determinate sentence of on average 20 years for manslaughter, for example, according to Sentencing Council. However, the new scheme would look to extend those terms, thus making it harder for violent crime offenders to achieve release on license. 

Anyone released through the new scheme will be monitored through measures that can include electronic tagging and curfews, indicating an effort to take tougher measures on those who do qualify for early release.

The former H Block Maze prison at Long Kesh near Lisburn, Northern Ireland. Picture date: Monday June 24, 2024. The potential of the former Maze prison site must be matched by political action to kick-start its full redevelopment, the First Minister Michelle O'Neill has said.  (Niall Carson/PA Images via Getty Images)

"There is now only one way to avert disaster," Mahmoud argued. "I do not choose to do this because I want to . . . but we are taking every protection that is available to us . . . let me be clear, this is an emergency measure."

Mahmoud added that the policy is temporary and underscored her "unapologetic" belief that "criminals must be punished."

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The Ministry of Justice will look to add 1,000 additional trainee probation officers by March 2025 and has committed to greater transparency with the public on sentencing issues. 

The new prisons secretary James Timpson, CEO of key cutters and shoe repair service Timpsons, has urged for prison reform, which would aim to reduce imprisonment and refocus development on rehabilitation programs that include training, education or therapy, the BBC reported.