Britain’s new justice minister announced on Friday that thousands of prisoners will be released in early September to prevent the “collapse” of the prison system.
Shabana Mahmood said failure to do so would risk a “complete breakdown of law and order”, as there are only 700 places left for men and prisons would operate at 99 per cent capacity from 2023.
England and Wales have the highest prison population per capita in Western Europe.
The release initiative will not apply to violent offenders serving sentences of more than four years, sex offenders, people in prison for domestic abuse, and those serving life sentences.
Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said this week that urgent action was needed because jails were “on the brink of collapse”.
Mahmood, who was appointed following Labour’s general election victory last week, warned in dramatic language that if prisons ran out of cell space, “there would be trains full of dangerous people driving around the country with nowhere to go”.
“With authorities unable to take action, criminals can do whatever they want without consequences. We can see looters running amok, breaking windows, robbing stores and setting fire to neighborhoods,” he said in a speech from prison.
“In short, if we fail to act now, we face a collapse of the criminal justice system and a total breakdown of law and order.”
Under the plan, prisoners who are eligible for automatic release after serving half their sentence will be released earlier than usual.
The plan includes temporarily reducing the time inmates spend in prison, from 50 percent to 40 percent of their sentence.
The releases will begin in September to give the prison and probation service time to plan.
According to official figures, the total number of prisoners rose to over 87,505 on Friday – of which over 83,800 were men – leaving only 1,451 places available.
According to the Ministry of Justice, since the start of 2023, the average occupancy rate in men’s prisons has “regularly been above 99 per cent”.
Officials say the prison system needs a buffer space of about 1,425 cells at all times in male prisons to deal with the sudden surge in inmates.
Six new prisons are being built for an additional 20,000 places.
The Prison Governors’ Association (PGA) said it welcomed the speed of the new measures, but called for a “full review” and said the “general public should never be put in this position again”.
PGA president Mark Fairhurst said the measures would free up around 4,500-5,000 extra places and give prisons around 12 to 18 months before taking further steps.
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