650 More Prisoners Freed Early in Third Wave of England and Wales Release Scheme
Around 650 offenders will walk out of jails in England and Wales today in the third phase of the government’s early release scheme, as ministers press ahead with plans to ease severe overcrowding in prisons.
The group leaving today includes offenders serving sentences of up to three years and two months. Under the new rules, they are being freed after serving no more than a third of their sentence behind bars, rather than the half that would normally apply.
It is the third batch of releases since the scheme began on 1 October. At least 1,350 offenders have already been released early under the first two waves, and officials project that at least 2,500 will have been let out by the end of the year, spending the remaining two-thirds of their sentences on licence in the community.
How the scheme works
The early release programme frees eligible prisoners in batches, with each stage covering offenders serving increasingly long sentences. The first wave, on 1 October, covered those serving up to 19 months, with around 700 people released. A second wave followed about two weeks later, covering sentences of up to two and a half years and freeing around 650 more.
Today’s third stage extends eligibility to sentences of up to three years and two months. The process will continue to widen month by month, culminating next June with offenders serving more than 12 years.
Not every offender qualifies. The prime minister, Andy Burnham, excluded certain crimes from the scheme, including rape and serious child sex offences, after a backlash over the scheduled release of the killers of PC Andrew Harper. Those freed early remain on licence, meaning they can be recalled to prison if they breach their conditions or reoffend.
Why the government says it has no choice
Ministers introduced the scheme to tackle a prison population crisis, with jails in England and Wales running close to full. The latest weekly figures, published on Monday, showed 86,982 people in jail, with only 2,076 spare places available, leaving the estate more than 97 per cent full.
Despite the releases so far, the pressure on space has barely eased. Prisons were still operating at almost 98 per cent capacity after the second wave of releases, according to figures published last month, underlining why the government has pressed ahead with further batches.
The scheme is the latest in a series of emergency measures to manage the prison population. A previous early release programme introduced after Labour came to power in 2024 has already seen tens of thousands of offenders freed, but ministers say the new scheme is needed because the estate remains close to running out of space.
What happens next
The probation service, which supervises offenders released on licence, has warned that its members are overwhelmed by the pace of releases. The union representing probation staff, Napo, has warned of the strain on the service as the scheme expands to cover longer sentences.
Critics of the scheme have raised concerns about public safety and about whether probation officers have the capacity to monitor thousands of additional offenders in the community. The government has insisted that the releases are necessary to keep the prison system functioning and that those freed remain subject to strict licence conditions.
Further batches will follow in the coming months, with eligibility widening each time. By the time the programme reaches its final stage next June, it will apply to offenders handed sentences of 12 years or more, making it one of the largest early release exercises ever carried out in England and Wales.
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Image: Armley Prison, Leeds. Photograph by Mark Stevenson, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
