Stop freeing prisoners on Fridays, jails told

JAILS should stop releasing prisoners on Fridays because it increases reoffending and drug abuse, government advisers have warned.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs said a third of prisoners were released on a Friday, despite this making it more likely they would have no housing, no money and no drug treatment over the weekend.

They were more likely to relapse, reoffend or, in the most serious cases, die, said the advisers, who also recommended scrapping short sentences of less than three months and reducing the numbers jailed for less than a year, because of high reoffending rates.

Dr Owen Bowden-jones, the council chairman, said: “It is paramount that the Government does more to help prevent vulnerable people from relapsing after their release from prison.”

David Gauke, the Justice Secretary, has pledged to abolish sentences of six months or less.