Up to 4,000 offenders could be freed from prison early

UP TO 4,000 offenders recalled to prison for breaching their licence could be released early under plans to tackle prison overcrowding.

Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, is to change the law so that those sentenced to less than 12 months who are released but then sent back for breaking their conditions will receive “fixed-term recalls”, which means they spend just 14 days back in prison.

At present, they can be given “standard recalls” meaning they remain in jail until deemed safe to release by the Parole Board and this is often until the end of their licence period.

In the year to September, 10,400 people were recalled on sentences of less than 12 months in England and Wales. Thousands could be released earlier.

The changes, set out in a statutory instrument laid in Parliament, will take effect on April 2 as part of measures to avoid running out of cells.

Among these is an emergency scheme where governors can free prisoners up to 18 days before their scheduled release date. This has now been “activated for an undefined period” because of lack of prison capacity.

Ministers have been warned that prison places could run out within weeks as courts ramp up cases and prosecutions are set to increase following the uplift of 20,000 police officers. As of last month, there were just over 1,000 spaces available out of 89,041.

The law change on recalls establishes a presumption that prisoners serving sentences under one year who are recalled after breaking their licence conditions will automatically be re-released after 14 days.

However, conditions exclude any prisoner whose breach of their licence involves a serious offence including murder, sexual or violent crimes and terrorism. It also excludes anyone held under multi-agency protection arrangements in the community because of the risk they pose to the public.

The Ministry of Justice said it would help people resettle in the community following short jail terms.

“For those serving less than 12 months, there is often too little time to have a parole review prior to the end of the sentence, meaning that once recalled to custody, they are often released at the end of the sentence without a licence period and therefore without support and supervision,” it said.

“Releasing them quickly following a fixed-term recall will mean they are back out in the community with effective support and supervision for the remainder of their short sentence.”