Prisoners will be released from jail as little as a third of the way through their sentences if they behave well, under Government plans to tackle the overcrowding crisis. The Telegraph has the story.
Offenders will be able to earn their freedom if they complete work, training or education assignments and demonstrate good behaviour.
If they fail to behave, they will have to spend longer in jail under the shake-up that will see the current automatic early release of offenders 40% of the way through their sentences scrapped.
Instead, convicted criminals will be given minimum and maximum sentences. Prisoners who fail to behave and engage with their training, education or work will face upper jail time limits that are significantly longer than the current 40% automatic release date.
The changes – designed to incentivise rehabilitation – are part of a package of measures to combat prison overcrowding which will be recommended to the Government next week by its independent sentencing review led by David Gauke, the former Tory justice secretary.
It will be the biggest shake-up in sentencing for more than 30 years, ending a blanket approach to automatic early release introduced in the 1991 Criminal Justice Act. Most prisoners are currently guaranteed release after serving 40%, 50% or, since 2003, two-thirds of their sentences.
The Tories will claim the plans amount to “soft justice”, while Labour will argue that the scale of the prisons crisis it inherited from the Conservatives requires radical solutions. The number of spare spaces in men’s jails has again dropped below 1,000, with prisons at 99% of their 89,300-inmate operational capacity.
Internal Ministry of Justice (MoJ) forecasts predict jails will run out of space again by early 2026, despite Labour introducing an early release scheme last September, whereby prisoners are freed 40% of the way through their sentences rather than halfway through.
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