Call to release elderly and ill prisoners

 Hundreds of seriously ill, elderly and other prisoners should be freed early to help drive down the “stubbornly high” jail population in England and Wales, a report suggests.

Judges would hear applications for release from inmates, including those locked up for public protection, and make recommendations to the Secretary of State under the “executive release” model.

The proposal, published by the Centre for Social Justice, was jointly drawn up by ex-prisoner and former cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken and retired judge John Samuels QC.